London Marathon achieves record participation with over 53,000 finishers

LONDON - More than 53,000 runners crossed the finish line at the 44th TCS London Marathon - World Athletics Platinum Label road race - on Sunday (April 21), setting a world record for the high-profiled annual marathon, race organizers said on Monday.

According to Reuters, this year's stats show a notable increase in the race finishers compared to the 2023 edition, when 43,965 runners completed the challenging course.

In terms of the computed numbers, the event saw a total of 54,281 participants start the race out of the 65,725 registered runners while making history by becoming the most significant annual one-day fundraising event globally.

Read more: London Marathon 2024 results; Peres Jepchirchir sets world record

Reuters said event director Hugh Brasher revealed that an impressive sum exceeding 67 million pounds ($82 million) has been raised thus far, with expectations of further contributions in the days following the event.

Adding the excitement was Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenyan who also created history after setting a new world record in a women's-only marathon on Sunday.

Jepchirchir clocked a winning time of 2:16:16 with the top finishers also clocked times inside 2:17.

In a highly competitive contest between some of the world's best women's marathon runners, the three-time world half marathon champion timed her kick to perfection to surge away from Ethiopia's world record-holder Tigist Assefa, former London Marathon champion Joyciline Jepkosgei and last year’s runner-up Megertu Alemu.