The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion took a grip on the race from the start, rapidly pulling away from the rest of the field, and finished in 1hour 23 min 44sec, taking more than two and a half minutes off his previous best time in London of 1:26:27.

The women’s race, by contrast, went to a sprint finish that was won by Australia’s Tokyo 2020 and Birmingham 2022 champion Madison de Rozario.

The prediction of Britain’s eight-times winner of the men’s event, David Weir, that the rest of the field were effectively racing for second place proved correct as Hug established a lead of 1min 20sec after 20 kilometres of the 42.195km course, stretching that to two minutes soon after the halfway point.

His victory came just six days after he had won his sixth Boston title, breaking his own course record there.

Hug finished exactly five minutes clear of the next racer, Jetze Plat of The Netherlands, with Tomoki Suzuki taking third place in 1:30.00, 2019 winner Daniel Romanchuk of the United States fourth in 1:30:18 and Weir, competing in his 24^th London Marathon, fifth in 1:30:45.

The destiny of the women’s wheelchair title was in doubt until the final stages as a group of four racers - Switzerland’s defending champion Catherine Debrunner, her compatriot Manuela Schar and de Rozario - moved into sprint mode.

De Rozario came home in 1:38:51 to claim her second London win, just a second ahead of Schar, who won in London in 2017 and 2021.

Susannah Scaroni of the United States beat Debrunner to third place, clocking 1:38:54 to the Swiss athlete’s 1:38:57.