The chief executive of London Marathon Hugh Brasher reveals that the upcoming event is expected to be staged in two days. The discussions are currently ongoing with the proposal of splitting the events into two days. The elite women racing to be held on the Saturday and that of men’s on Sunday. The final approval is, however, yet to be made.
In a recent interview, on Wednesday, April 22, Brasher had told the reporters about the plans and process being undertaken.
“We have lots of plans. And we do have multiple stakeholders and we are, and have been, engaging with them for a long period of time. There are conversations going on this week, next week. We do hope we will get signed off, but it is a huge undertaking, not only from our team’s point of view, but also London’s point of view,” he said.
Brasher says the key point of discussion is the complexity of the capital’s sporting calendar. The 2027 season is already scheduled with major events.
“On that day, you will have an FA Cup semifinal on Saturday and Sunday is a packed sporting calendar for London, with the Tour de France Femmes coming,” he added.
If approved, then the two-day format would be staged only once. According to research from Sheffield Hallam University it was found that a two-day London Marathon could raise an approximate amount of around £130 million ($175.68 million) for charity and generate £400 million ($540.56 million) in economic benefits.
Last year’s edition had raised a record of £87.3 million ($117.98 million) for charity, while becoming the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event.
Around 59,000 runners are expected to participate in Sunday’s 42.195-kilometre race which is expected to be a record breaking. Last year’s edition had a total of 56,640 people participating in the finishing line. That made it place in the Guinness World Record for largest number of finishers in a marathon.
The women’s field race features defending champion Tigst Assefa, and New York Marathon champion Hellen Obiri.
