The 2027 London Marathon will set the stage as one of the most important races for the United Kingdom’s elite athletes as it will be Great Britain’s 2027 world championship marathon qualifier and serve as its 2028 Olympic marathon trial.
UK Athletics confirmed the move on Thursday and the two-day marathon event next year will serve as the decider of who will represent Great Britain in the next major global competitions.
The first British man and woman finishers at next year’s races on April 24 and 25, 2027 will qualify for marathons at the 2027 World Championships in Beijing in addition to the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles if they achieve the qualifying standards for either events.
Upping the importance of the London Marathon even more adds to what is set to be a turning moment in the major marathon circuit as after organizers decided in June to welcome a field of 100,000 participants to the city in a two-day pair of races.
“The TCS London Marathon is the greatest marathon in the world and provides a fantastic platform for British athletes to compete on the highest stage,” Tom Craggs, UK Athletics Endurance Performance lead said. “British marathon running continues to go from strength to strength, and we look forward to seeing athletes take on this unique opportunity to compete for both national titles and world and Olympic selection.”
For the world championships, British men will need a 2:06 time and women have to get a 2:23:20 to qualify and the first two athletes from each group will have an oppotunity to get a automatice selection to the marathon team.
Eilish McColgan and Mahamed Mahamed won the 2026 UKA Marathon Championships, which used this year’s London Marathon as its deciding event. McColgan took the top British women’s title in 2:24:51 and Mahamed crossed the finish line in 2:06:14 to lead the UK’s men.
And in the Olympic qualifier, which the time standard has not yet been released, the first male and first female to finish the 2027 London Marathon will get a “pre-selected” designation which require “further demonstration of performances” during the 2028 season in other distance races.
Simply being the top British athletes in London will not be the only threshold to qualify for the team that will travel to Los Angeles. The Olympic marathon standard is expected to be released later this year.
“The 2027 Double TCS London Marathon is already set to be a stunning one-off occasion, with 100,000 people taking part across two days and the elite men’s and women’s races split across the weekend for the first time,” Hugh Brasher, CEO of London Marathon Events said. “By making it the official trial race for both the 2027 World Athletics Championships and the 2028 Olympic Games, as well as the 2027 UK Athletics Marathon Championships, UK Athletics has added another unique dimension to the event. The country’s best marathon runners will also be racing for places at not one, but two major global championships.”
