The 1983 London Marathon was the third running of the annual marathon race in London, United Kingdom, which took place on Sunday, 17 April. The elite men's race was won by home athlete Mike Gratton in a time of 2:09:43 hours and the women's race was won by Norway's Grete Waitz in 2:25:29. Waitz's time was a marathon world record, yet it stood for only one day as it was beaten by Joan Benoit at the 1983 Boston Marathon.[1]

3rd London Marathon
VenueLondon, United Kingdom
Date17 April 1983
Champions
MenMike Gratton (2:09:43)
WomenGrete Waitz (2:25:29)
Wheelchair menGordon Perry (3:20:07)
Wheelchair womenDenise Smith (4:29:03)
← 1982
1984 →

Around 60,000 people applied to enter the race, of which 19,735 had their applications accepted and around 16,500 started the race. A total of 15,793 runners finished the race.[2]

A wheelchair race was held for the first time, organised by the British Sports Association for the Disabled, and British athletes Gordon Perry and Denise Smith won the men's and women's divisions, respectively.[3] The race organiser Chris Brasher had opposed the inclusion of wheelchair racers, emphasising that it should remain a running competition and that the inclusion of wheeled racers would lead to accidents and "more disability". The Greater London Council, under the leadership of Ken Livingstone and Illtyd Harrington, threatened to withdraw funding for the event, forcing the organisers to relent and include wheelchair athletes.[4]

Results

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Position Athlete Nationality Time
  Mike Gratton   United Kingdom 2:09:43
  Gerard Helme   United Kingdom 2:10:12
  Henrik Jørgensen   Denmark 2:10:47
4 Kebede Balcha   Ethiopia 2:11:32
5 James Dingwall   United Kingdom 2:11:44
6 Ricardo Ortega   Spain 2:11:51
7 Martin McCarthy   United Kingdom 2:11:54
8 Emiel Puttemans   Belgium 2:12:27
9 Trevor Wright   New Zealand 2:12:29
10 Øyvind Dahl   Norway 2:12:43
11 David Cannon   United Kingdom 2:12:51
12 Fred Vandervennet   Belgium 2:13:01
13 Raymond Crabb   United Kingdom 2:13:15
14 Dennis Fowles   United Kingdom 2:13:21
15 Jan Fjærestad   Norway 2:13:31
16 Marc De Blander   Belgium 2:13:43
17 John Caine   United Kingdom 2:13:43
18 Mervyn Brameld   United Kingdom 2:13:48
19 Eirik Berge   Norway 2:13:50
20 Bernard Bobes   France 2:14:00
21 Gyorgy Sinko   Hungary 2:14:11

Women

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Position Athlete Nationality Time
  Grete Waitz   Norway 2:25:29
  Mary O'Connor   New Zealand 2:28:20
  Glynis Penny   United Kingdom 2:36:21
4 Karolina Szabó   Hungary 2:36:22
5 Jillian Colwell   Australia 2:37:12
6 Antonia Ladanyi   Hungary 2:37:42
7 Deirdre Nagle   Ireland 2:37:42
8 Kathryn Binns   United Kingdom 2:38:11
9 Sarah Rowell   United Kingdom 2:39:11
10 Priscilla Welch   United Kingdom 2:39:29
11 Jacquie Turney   Australia 2:40:05
12 Sally Ann Hales   United Kingdom 2:40:08
13 Heidi Jacobsen   Norway 2:40:11
14 Zehava Shmueli   Israel 2:40:29
15 Julie Asgill   United Kingdom 2:40:59
16 Dorothy Browne   Australia 2:41:24
17 Mette Holm   Denmark 2:41:35
18 Kersti Jakobsen   Denmark 2:41:53
19 Margaret Lockley   United Kingdom 2:42:08
20 Karen Whapshott   United Kingdom 2:42:13

Wheelchair men

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Position Athlete Nationality Time
  Gordon Perry   United Kingdom 3:20:07
  Joe Fletcher   United Kingdom 3:25:03
  Tim Marshall   United Kingdom 3:26:15
4 Leroy Dobson   United Kingdom 3:27:40
5 Charles Raymond   United Kingdom 3:52:55
6 Ertie Gomec   Turkey 3:55:50
7 James Gilham   United Kingdom 3:56:57
8 Shahriar Esfandiari   Iran 4:08:16
9 Stuart Anderson   United Kingdom 4:29:03
10 Graham Young   United Kingdom 4:35:11

Wheelchair women

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Position Athlete Nationality Time
  Denise Smith   United Kingdom 4:29:03
  Joanne Roberts   United Kingdom 6:09:03

References

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  1. ^ McGuire, Jane (23 April 2020). 40 moments from 40 years of the London Marathon. Runners World . Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  2. ^ Stats and Figures Archived 23 March 2020 at the Wayback Machine. London Marathon. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  3. ^ 2015 London Marathon Media Guide[permanent dead link]. London Marathon (2015). Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. ^ Paralympics archive: the marathon debate (1983). Channel 4 (28 August 2012). Retrieved 2020-04-27.
Results
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