April 23 (Reuters) - Kenya's Mary Keitany broke the women's only world record en route to her third London Marathon gold medal on Sunday, finishing in a time of 2 hours 17 minutes 01 seconds to beat Paula Radcliffe previous best by 41 seconds.

Radcliffe still holds the overall record of 2:15.25, which she set in a mixed gender race at the London Marathon in 2003 when she used male runners to help set the pace.

The IAAF recognises two marathon world records for women, one for "mixed gender" and the other for "women only".

Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia finished Sunday's race 56 seconds adrift in second place, while Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia was third.

(Reporting by Matt Westby, additional reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar) ((simon.jennings@thomsonreuters.com; +91 8067497619; Reuters Messaging: simon.jennings.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))