Record 1.3m apply for 2027 London marathon ballot

A record number of people have applied to participate in the 2027 London Marathon via the public ballot.

In total, 1,338,544 people have applied for the event which will take place on 25 April, breaking last year's record of 1,133,813.

The 2026 marathon had a record 59,830 finishers and was the biggest annual one-day fundraising event in the world.

"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.

"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."

The ballot results will be released early in July, with places allocated through a random draw.

It is the first time that more than a million applications from the UK alone have been submitted, and there was near parity in male and female registrations.

At last weekend's historic event, Kenya's Sabastian Sawe ran the first sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race, and Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa broke her own women's world record.

The possibility of holding the 2027 London Marathon across two days - Saturday and Sunday - is still being explored.

Brasher previously said the idea would be to hold the elite women's race on one of the days, alongside other women to have gained entry through their previous marathon times - and wheelchair races.

The men's equivalents would take place on the other day, with mass races across both days.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Brasher said he hoped it would be confirmed 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."