OXFORD-born Mara Yamauchi said she had “no excuses” after she finished tenth in yesterday’s Virgin London Marathon.

The former Headington Roadrunners’ time of 2hrs 26.16mins was more than four minutes behind the winner Liliya Shobukhova (2.22.00) and three minutes slower than her second place time last year.

She said afterwards: “Given how I ran last year, I was reasonably optimistic about the race, but the field was so strong and deep that if everyone performed to their best it was going to be very difficult under any circumstances.

“But with the training I lost through injury and the consequences of my journey perhaps (my expectations) were unrealistic.

“We started off at the speed I expected and I was working hard to stick with it, but the journey here and the injury last year maybe proved too much.

“But I don’t want to make excuses, I just wasn’t fast enough on the day. I need to go away and figure out why and come back stronger.”

Yamauchi had started confidently and was in the leading group for the first 12 miles, but gradually dropped back.

“I was working quite hard in the first half of the race – harder than you would want to,” she said.

“I felt a bit heavy legged after ten miles and was thinking it was all taking too much effort’. When the group went away from me, I was already beginning to struggle. “I did think about dropping out when the others went away from me, but dropping out is pointless so I kept going to the finish.

“I was just trying to hang on. I was thinking, ‘I can’t close the gap. I am going finish way down. Is there any point?’ But I thought that some of the leaders would be slowing and I might catch them”.

Yamauchi will spend a few days in Oxford, before a holiday in Italy.

She will not run the Mara-thon in the European Championships in Barcelona this summer, but would run an autumn marathon to get a 2012 Olympic qualifying time.

Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia won the men’s race in 2.05.19.

Paralympic gold medallist David Weir was denied a fourth victory after suffering a puncture when leading.