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Joyciline Jepkosgei won the London Marathon title from Brigid Kosgei, Kenyan compatriot.
Jepkosgei won the 2019 New York Marathon and made the decisive turn around 22 miles.
The 27-year old won in 2 hours 17 minutes 43 seconds. A tired Kosgei finished fourth.
Sisay Lemma, Ethiopia, won the men's race in Ethiopia with the largest win of his career at 2:04.01.
Marcel Hug and Manuela Schar won a double Swiss wheelchair race, with David Weir of Britain coming in third at the 22nd London Marathon.
Cool, dry, and fine conditions made for impressive times. Lemma was the sixth fastest man to race and Jepkosgei leapt to seventh place on the women's all time list and course records in both the wheelchair races.
After 2020's elite-only races this year, the London Marathon welcomed back 40,000 mass event runners to the traditional street course. Another 40,000 are running the distance virtually via an app that logs their distance.
"I'm very excited. Jepkosgei said that it was a beautiful day to run.
"I am so grateful for the London crowd. There were cheers every kilometre.
Proud Purdue is 'all in' for this day
Purdue was also the fastest Briton to finish the race in 2019.
Charlotte Purdue was controversially not selected for Tokyo 2020 selection but she was the first Briton to return home in the women’s race.
Purdue placed 10th in a personal record 2:23.26. This was just short Mara Yamauchi’s second place on Britain's all-time list, but well within the qualifying standard for next years's World Championships in Oregon.
"I knew that I deserved a place on the team, but I had to forget it so it was nice to have this as a focus. She said that she was 100% committed to this day.
"Qualifying for today's World Championships was an added bonus."
Degitu Azimeraw from Ethiopia came in second, with Ashete Begkere third.
Kosgei was competing only 57 days after winning Olympic silver in Tokyo. She wanted to follow Katrin Dorre's footsteps and become the second woman to win back-to-back women’s titles.
Lemma wins the battle
Shura Kitata, the men's defending champion, was also disappointed. He finished sixth in 2:07.51.
As a former middle-distance expert, he finished just over five minutes faster than Philip Sesemann in Britain. His impressive marathon debut at age 29 was remarkable.
Lemma, who placed third in the Covid-enforced close course last year, increased her pace at the same point on the route towards Jepkosgei and achieved a similarly impressive result.
His second and third runners-up were Vincent Kipchumba from Kenya and Mosinet Geremew from Ethiopia.
