Interest in next year's London Marathon is surging following this year's historic achievement of the first-ever sub-two-hour full marathon.
The event's organizing committee said Wednesday (local time) that a record 1,338,544 people have applied to participate in the 2027 London Marathon, scheduled for April 25, 2027.
The figure far exceeds the previous record of 1,133,813 set last year.
The committee said approximately 1 million applications came from within the United Kingdom, while about 330,000 were submitted from overseas.
The organizers plan to select around 60,000 participants through a random ballot, charity fundraiser nominations, and qualifying-time entries, with results to be announced in early July.
At this year's London Marathon, Sebastian Sawe of Kenya set a historic record by becoming the first person to complete a full marathon in under two hours. Sawe finished the 42.195-kilometer course in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, significantly improving on the previous world record of 2:00:35 set by Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya at the Chicago Marathon in October 2023.
In the women's race, Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia crossed the finish line in 2:15:41, shaving 9 seconds off her own previous world record of 2:15:50 set at the same event last year.
Amid the surge in applications, organizers are considering splitting the event across two days.
