Impressive run by Pakistani contingent at London Marathon

KARACHI: More than forty runners from Pakistan and the global Pakistani diaspora participated in London Marathon 2025 on Sunday, with Islamabad-based Furqan Masood emerging as the fastest Pakistani finisher with a time of 3 hours, 10 minutes and 7 seconds. Masood, representing the Islamabad Running Club, maintained a strong pace through the first half of the race before battling fatigue in the later stages under unexpectedly warm conditions.

Masood’s split times revealed his determined performance, starting with a 20:44 first 5K and reaching the 10K mark in 42:09. His pace remained steady through the halfway point at 1:31:11, though the rising temperatures took their toll in the latter stages. The most challenging segment came between 25K and 30K, where he clocked 23:02, before finishing strong to place 4,460th overall in the massive field of over 56,000 runners.

“Today was about perseverance,” Masood said. “The heat made it tougher than expected, but the support from fellow runners and the Pakistani community kept me going.” Close behind Masood was U.S.-based Salman Ilyas at 3:18:33, followed by Muhammad Fasih Saleh in 3:21:54. Hamza Saleem and Shah Syed delivered nearly identical performances at 3:23:10 and 3:23:12 respectively, demonstrating the depth of Pakistani participation.

Norwegian-Pakistani runner Amy Mir made her mark as the fastest female of Pakistani origin, completing her first marathon in 3:52:00 despite limited training. “I hadn’t prepared beyond 17K in training,” Mir admitted after finishing, “but the incredible crowd support carried me through every step.” Hira Diwan was 2nd among Pakistani female runners who ran her 2nd world major marathon in less than a week after competing Boston Marathon few days ago. She completed the course in four hours, 25 minutes and 33 seconds.

The event marked a historic achievement for Lahore’s Hamid Butt, who at 64 years old became the first Pakistani to complete the Abbott World Marathon Majors series twice, earning his second six-star medal with a time of 3:41:45.

The full list of Pakistani participants and their times included Furqan Masood (3:10:07), Salman Ilyas (3:18:33), Muhammad Fasih Saleh (3:21:54), Hamza Saleem (3:23:10), Shah Syed (3:23:12), Hamid Butt (3:41:45), Raees Ebrahim (3:42:46), Aamar Butt (3:50:10), Amy Mir (3:52:00), Adnan Ozair (3:52:23), Imran Khan (4:02:46), Zaheer Akbar (4:05:24), Atiq Ul Hasan (4:09:43), Abu-Bakr Mohammad Afzal (4:12:44), Haseeb Usmani (4:20:20), Hira Diwan (4:25:33), Alai Naseer (4:28:33), Kamran Abbasi (4:31:38), Raja Arif Ullah Khan (4:35:29), Imran Zaffar (4:37:11), Shakeel Khan (4:38:27), Nadeem Iqbal (4:44:05), Khalid Sheikh (4:52:11), Ayesha Akhtar (4:56:09), Maria Adeel (5:09:59), Taha Ghafoor (5:10:43), Faisal Saif (5:12:50), Semeena Khan (5:18:02), Saniya Zafar (5:23:01), Junaid Memon (5:27:21), Danial Mumtaz (5:33:00), Aleena Ali (5:34:02), Ahsan Ahmed (5:34:59), Muhammad Yousuf Malik (5:35:49), Mona Khan (5:35:50), Maryam Zahra (5:36:49), Hira Mufti (5:47:03), Mohammad Omar (5:49:44), Zawar Khan (6:02:50), Hamad Ali (6:04:11), Mazhar Ibad Lari (6:25:00), Shazia Nawaz (6:30:34), and Shanzay Ahmad (6:41:36).