Neil Renault, of Medway & Maidstone AC, was the top Kent finisher in the Flora London Marathon in a highly creditable 20th overall out of 35,000 finishers on Sunday morning.

The 25-year-old England international raced through halfway in 68 minutes 48 seconds on his way to a finish time of 2 hours 20 minutes 30 seconds, for an average pace of 5.21 per mile.

Renault was the fifth British runner to finish behind the course record 2.05.10 achieved by Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya. He now ranks fifth at the marathon in Britain with London having produced the top seven UK times for 2009.

Medway & Maidstone had 10 athletes in action and there was an excellent personal best time for Adrian Lowther, 91st in 2.34.24, who was only intending to run as a pacemaker for M40 master, Gareth Williams (2.52.09).

Williams woke on the eve of the event with a virus and chanced his luck but the tank was empty on the day and he suffered a rare bad day at the office.

Paul Mason (3.07.27) also trimmed his previous best and there were solid performances from M55 Ivon Whitmore (3.19.20), Gary Hughes (3.28.35), M40 Alun Rodgers (3.35.23), David Harvey (4.08.07), M45 Muhammad Naseem (4.42.32) and M55 Colin Carpenter (5.15.13).