A record number of people have applied for the 2027 London Marathon via the public ballot, with entries surpassing last year’s total.
In all, 1,338,544 applications were submitted for the race scheduled for 25 April, breaking the previous record of 1,133,813 set last year.
The 2026 edition recorded 59,830 finishers and remained the largest annual one-day fundraising event globally.
“This astonishing total of applicants firmly establishes London as the world’s most sought-after marathon,” said Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events.
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“Nothing else comes close. Our mission is to inspire people of every age and ability to get active – and these extraordinary numbers show the massive draw and power of the London Marathon.”
Ballot results will be announced early in July, with places allocated through a random draw.
For the first time, more than one million applications have come from the UK alone, with near equal participation between male and female applicants.
At last weekend’s event, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe ran the first sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa broke her own women’s world record.
Organisers are also considering plans to stage the 2027 race over two days.
The proposal would see the elite women’s race, along with other qualified female runners and wheelchair races, held on one day, while the men’s races would take place on the other day.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Brasher said he hoped a decision would be made by the end of May.
“This is for one year only. We are engaging, and have been engaging for a long time, with a lot of stakeholders,” he said.
“Rightly, they want us to go through a process to ensure what we do is appropriate. People will get disrupted – it’s never happened before on a Saturday.
“There are lots of plans and mitigations that we’ve got and we would have do some unique things.
“But I think this shows the desire, the need, for the country. More than £400m of economic and social benefit would happen as a result of the two days, and we believe more than £150m would be raised for charities.
“It would be a one-off. We hope to get there – we’re not there yet. I’m positive it’s the right thing to do.”
