The 32-year-old European 5,000 metres record holder used her finishing speed to outpace countrywoman Inga Abitova with Ethiopia's Asselefech Mergia third.

Shobukhova broke away in the last two kilometres, adding the London crown to the Chicago Marathon title she won with similar tactics last autumn.

The performance of Shobukhova, who had finished third in the corresponding race in 2009, will have sent a warning shot across the bows of Britain's world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, who missed the race because she is pregnant and watched it from the BBC commentary box.

"My next aim is to be the number one in the Olympics in 2012," she said.

British hope and last year's runner-up Mara Yamauchi fell off the pace around the halfway point through which pacemaker Aniko Kalovis took the field on schedule in 1:10:56

Yamauchi whose 6,500 miles journey from her training base in Albuqerque, New Mexico took six days thanks to the problems with air travel caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, saw her ambitions of victory disappear.

She eventually finished tenth.

Yamauchi (pictured) said: "We started off at the pace I expected and I was working hard to stay with the rest of the pack.

"But I think a combination of my injury last year and the journey to get here was just too much for me today.

"It took more out of me than I had realised and really was not great preparation before a marathon.

"I just didn't have enough left and once the others broke away, I couldn't stay with them and had to go at my own pace.

"I know what I need to do and I'm going to go away and work harder and hopefully run well in New York and then qualify for London 2012."

German Irina Mikitenko, aiming to become only the second woman to complete a hat-trick of successive victories, dropped out at Tower Bridge shortly before the halfway stage.

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