2024 London Marathon ballot entries break record
Melanie May | 4 May 2023 | News
More than half a million people have applied in the TCS London Marathon ballot for a place in the 2024 event, breaking a world record for marathon applications.
In total, 578,374 people from the UK and across the globe entered the ballot for the 2024 TCS London Marathon before the deadline of 28 April.
The previous world record total of 457,861 applications was set pre-pandemic in 2019 by applicants for the 2020 London Marathon.
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The total number of UK applications for 2024 was 457,105, of which 242,119 were applications from men (52.9% of the total), 212,179 from women (46.4% of the total) and 2,807 (0.6% of the total) from non-binary applications.
There were a further 121,269 applications in the international ballot for non-UK residents.
Hugh Brasher, Event Director for the TCS London Marathon, said:
“This incredible new world record reflects the extraordinary inspirational effect of the TCS London Marathon on 23 April. We saw a record number of more than 48,600 finishers on Marathon Day and more than 8,200 children took part in the mass TCS Mini London Marathon the day before.
“We work to inspire activity in people of all ages and abilities and these record-breaking numbers show how the TCS London Marathon weekend does that. The unique camaraderie and togetherness that participants feel when they take part in the London Marathon continues to have an extraordinary impact on the desire for people to take part. It is an event that inspires people to take up running and to raise millions for charity.”
The ballot for the 2024 TCS London Marathon was operated for the first time by Let’s Do This as part of a new five-year partnership.
Charity entries
The 2024 TCS London Marathon Official Charity of the Year is Samaritans, which was announced last week. The event offers a bond scheme and a ballot for charities. The bond scheme sees charities allocated places, and the ballot offers an opportunity for UK-registered charities to secure places although the latter did not take place in 2023 due to the impact of the pandemic on the event. The bond scheme is undergoing a series of changes over the next few years, following a review in 2021 of the Golden Bond, Silver Bond, Charity Ballot and One Year Charity Bonds scheme.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.