Hundreds of Oxfordshire athletes were cheered every inch of the way as they completed the 20th staging of the London Marathon in glorious weather on Sunday, writes Jon Murray.

One of the best local performances from among the 32,000 competitiors came from Gerry Smith, a Vet 40, who led Kidlington Running Club's runners home with an excellent personal best time of 2hrs 39mins.

But the most heart-warming story was that of Bicester AC runner Rodger McCarroll, who this time last year was taking his first tentative steps back to running after a brain tumour operation.

Within six months, McCarroll was running well enough to register an entry for the London Marathon, only to be one of the thousands who were rejected. The last chance saloon came by way of the club tombola as McCarroll's name was pulled out of the hat for one of the club's two discretionary entries. And McCarroll made the most of his good fortune by clocking an excellent 2.52 one of the fastest ever times by a Bicester veteran and one of the best clockings by an Oxfordshire runner on the day.

Clubmate Gary Timms went through halfway in a swift 84 minutes, but slowed in the second half to eventually 2.58.02.

Richard Jacobs was the pick of Abingdon Amblers' 16 runners, coming home in a pb time of 3.02.

First man home for Oxford City was Melvyn Kilcoyne in 2.49.33. He was followed by clubmate Steve Mead in 2.56.27, while Chris Birch just missed breaking the three-hour barrier, finishing in 3.00.03. In the women's race, Mitch Birdsall had a good run to finish in 3.06.54. Mike Baillie finished the top Witney Roadrunner in a personal best of 2.54.00, with Nastasha Rhymes their top lady finisher in a pb of 3.54.

Dennis Knight was Alchester's first runner home despite performing below par to finish in 3.26.14.

LONDON MARATHON TIMES

Abingdon Amblers: R Jacob 3.02 (pb), J Wigmore 3.18 (pb), A Garner 3.30, C Sawyers 3.34, A Dawkins 3.50, C Hunt 3.55, W Wilson 4.10, M Smith 4.44, K Polley 5.07, R Lewis 6.05, S Gallagher 6.20, A Webb 6.20, S North 6.32, G Walker 6.32.

Alchester RC: D Knight 3.26.14, N Cherry 3.35.26 (pb), A Parker 3.58.14 (pb), J Bradford 4.15.03, S Mayes 4.37.36.

Bicester AC: R McCarroll 2.52, G Timms 2.58.02, M Allen 3.25 (pb), J Oley 3.36, B Devenish 3.57, H Jenkins 4.40, C Weardon 4.48, P Carter 4.55.

Eynsham Roadrunners: A Grove 3.10.40, A Schmedlin 3.16.55, T Whitlock 3.26.20, M Gascoigne 3.35.32, R Saunders 3.37.21, B Hedges 3.58.28, A Creasey 3.59.29, S Taylor 4.13.31, L Morgan 4.19.36 (pb), S Jinks 5.02.31, J Ryan 5.08.30.

Headington Roadrunners: E Krauss 2.52.30 (pb), H Nickau 2.55.22 (pb), M Bayer 2.58.28, S Buckland 3.07.01 (pb), E Shoesmith 3.08.55, B Burlingham 3.12, T Brown 3.14, B Cox 3.36.03, S Howard 3.39.20, N Myers 3.42.52, M Barnes 3.46.00 (pb), K Newbold 3.48.06, S Alexander 3.48.49 (pb), S Nelson 4.01.24, R Mitnacht-Krauss 4.01.40 (pb), S Cowls 4.14.33, R Buswell 4.15.47 (pb), S Morgan 4.16 (pb), J Meredith 4.18.32, J McClaughlin 4.24.02, A Farrell 4.51.

Kidlington R&AC: G Smith 2.39 (pb), P Kyberd 3.28, A Caine 3.29, J Warnock 4.04 (pb), P Jennings 4.05, B Hayler 4.11, K Wylie 4.12, G Norris 4.26.

Oxford University Press RC: J Parsons 3.52, N Tomkins 4.06.

Witney Roadrunners: M Baillee 2.54 (pb), C King 3.05, A Podbury 3.20.14, I Hurd 3.25, D Mathews 3.29, D Candlin 3.30, A Donaldson 3.30, T King 3.50, A Clipson 3.50, B McCreadie 4.15, B Parker 4.35, J Barrett 4.35, L McCormac 4.42 (pb), Timms 4.50, I Fowler 5.24.