The 2020 London Marathon will use a different route and will only include elite runners when it takes place on 4 October.

The event, which has been pushed back from April, will not take the usual London road course and will instead take place on a looped 26.2 mile (42.2km) course around St James’s Park.

No spectators will be permitted as the runners complete 19.8 laps of the park, which will also not involve the 45,000 “mass-event” runners due to coronavirus concerns.

Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele are expected to take part in the men’s race.

Meanwhile, the women’s race will be headlined by world record holder Brigid Kosegi, while Manuela Schar and David Weir will feature in the wheelchair event.

Athletes’ times will be eligible for qualification for the Tokyo Olympics, which had to be rescheduled to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year’s London Marathon will be the 40th edition of the race.

Next year’s London Marathon has already been pushed back from April to 3 October 2021 to maximise the possibility of a mass race returning.

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