Chengdu Marathon announced as Abbott World Marathon Majors candidate race – runnersworld.com

It has been announced today by the China Athletic Association, Chengdu Municipal People’s Government, Wanda Group and Abbott World Marathon Majors, that the Chengdu Marathon is an official candidate race for the Abbott World Marathon Majors (AbbottWMM).

As a candidate race, the Chengdu Marathon will be in a long-term, multi-year evaluation process conducted by the AboottWMM. This is the first marathon race in China to be nominated as a candidate race. If accepted, it will join the ranks of the Tokyo Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the Virgin Money London Marathon, the BMW Berlin Marathon, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the TCS New York City Marathon.

According to Abbott WMM, Marathon running is a rapidly developing mass participation sport in China, with 6,155 runners from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan participated in the Abbott World Marathon Majors in 2018. Over the past two years, the Chengdu Marathon has attracted 48,000 runners from over 54 countries.

Race registration for the 2019 Chengdu Marathon will open in June. The overall number of participants will increase to 30,000 and the event name will be changed from Chengdu International Marathon to Chengdu Marathon. The course map is also set to change. To reduce the short distance turn-backs in the second half of the race.

One key element of the Abbott World Marathon Majors is the Six Star programme, where runners can complete every race in the series to receive a special commemorative medal. So far, more than 6000 runners globally have achieved this.

It has not been confirmed what will happen to runners who have already completed their majors, but we imagine the addition of a new major means in order to complete all the majors, you will need to complete the Chengdu Marathon as well.

Runner’s World Editor and six star finisher Andy Dixon added, “This makes sense from a global marketing perspective – China has a potentially huge and booming running market, so it makes sense for there to be a Marathon Major located there.

“You could argue that the focus of the Marathon Majors has shifted – what was once the best five marathons in the world is becoming more of a global series, a bit like Formula 1, where countries and circuits compete to be part of the schedule, and where economic and geographic considerations are in some ways more important than just the quality of the race itself.

“It will be interesting to see how many people will still want to complete all of the Majors as the numbers increase in the coming years – I know from experience that it’s a very expensive undertaking, and that was just doing six, which took me 11 years.

“And finally, just how big is a seven or eight-star medal going to be?”