London Marathon scale
- The 2026 TCS London Marathon is set to send more than 59,000 runners from Blackheath to The Mall on Sunday, after organizers said a record 1,133,813 people applied for ballot places. - The ballot drew 869,803 UK applications and 264,011 international applications, while the elite fields include defending champions Sabastian Sawe and Tigst Assefa alongside Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner. - The scale follows a record-setting 2025 race that became the world’s biggest marathon by finishers and helped fuel another surge in demand. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk)
More than 59,000 runners are expected on the start line for the 2026 TCS London Marathon on Sunday, April 26. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) London Marathon Events said 1,133,813 people applied through the public ballot for 2026, including 869,803 applicants from the United Kingdom and 264,011 from outside the country. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) That total broke the previous ballot record of 840,318 for the 2025 edition, a 36% year-on-year increase, and nearly doubled the 578,304 applications logged for 2024. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) The event’s own preview calls the 2026 race the most popular marathon in the world, and says more than one-third of UK applicants were ages 18 to 29. Female runners make up the biggest share of that age group. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) Organizers also say this will be the most inclusive London Marathon yet, with more than 1,900 people with a disability registered for the mass event. The oldest participant this year is 88-year-old Harry Newton of Macclesfield. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) The elite races bring back all four defending champions. Sabastian Sawe returns to defend the men’s title, Tigst Assefa leads the women’s field, and Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner are back in the wheelchair races. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) Sawe won London in 2:02:27 in 2025, the second-fastest men’s time ever run on the course, and then added the 2025 Berlin Marathon title. He said this year’s field may require a run faster than Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:01:25 course record from 2023. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) Assefa arrives after winning London in 2025 in 2:15:50, a women-only world record. Hug can draw level with David Weir on eight London Marathon wins if he takes Sunday’s men’s wheelchair race. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 1) (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 2) Sir Mo Farah and England rugby back Ellie Kildunne will serve as official starters. The wheelchair race begins at 8:50 a.m., the elite women at 9:05 a.m., and the elite men and mass field at 9:35 a.m. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) The backdrop is a 2025 edition that London Marathon Events said became the world’s biggest marathon by finishers, passing the New York City Marathon’s 55,646 mark and eventually reaching 56,640 finishers. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 1) (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 2) London’s organizers are already using that momentum to open the 2027 ballot, while presenting the 2026 race as both the world’s biggest and its most oversubscribed. Sunday’s test is whether the event can turn record demand into another record day on the streets. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk)
