The London Marathon is in superior talks about staging a two-day occasion in 2027, permitting tens of hundreds extra runners to participate within the iconic race and to boost tens of thousands and thousands extra for charity.
While the Double London Marathon, as it’s being referred to as internally, has not been granted formal approval it’s believed to have the backing of the mayor’s workplace for it to be staged on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April subsequent 12 months.
The one-off occasion would permit a world-record 100,000 beginner runners to participate over the weekend, with 50,000 working the course on every day. It can also be anticipated that the elite males’s and girls’s races would even be staged on separate days, in what could be a celebration of top-level and grassroots sport.
Last 12 months a document 56,540 finishers raised £87.3m for charity – making London the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising occasion. The ambition is that 2027 would ship a serious enhance to capital’s wellbeing and the financial system – and likewise probably increase greater than £130m for charity.
The Guardian may reveal {that a} sequence of conferences have taken place with numerous stakeholders. Part of the proposal is {that a} two-day London Marathon could be a singular alternative to indicate unity and neighborhood throughout the nation at a time of rising social and financial division.
The plan shall be welcomed by runners who’ve tried and didn’t get into the world’s greatest marathon resulting from its hovering recognition. More than 1.1m individuals entered the general public poll to run in 2026 – a determine that has risen from 410,000 simply three years in the past – and lots of had been left upset.
The London Marathon didn’t remark immediately on the proposal when approached by the Guardian on Wednesday. However it did present a quote from its chief govt, Hugh Brasher, which stated: “The TCS London Marathon is the world’s most popular marathon, and we are always exploring innovative ways to enable more people to take part and to deliver positive benefits for London.
“This work is carried out in close collaboration with our partners and stakeholders, whose support is essential in staging this incredible event in the heart of the capital each year,” he added.
“We are currently four weeks away from the 2026 TCS London Marathon on Sunday 26 April, and we are looking forward to amplifying one of the original aims of the London Marathon, which was ‘to show happiness and sense of achievement in a somewhat troubled world’.
“Poignantly, those words resonate even more now than they did almost 45 years ago to the day, when the first London Marathon took place.”
