London Marathon splits 2027 elite races across Saturday and Sunday

The elite men's and women's races at the 2027 London Marathon will take place on separate days, with the men's events scheduled for Saturday, 24 April, and the women's races following on Sunday. BBC Sport reported that organisers settled the order through a game of rock, paper, scissors between two of this year's champions.

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Catherine Debrunner, the women's wheelchair world record holder, defeated men's marathon world record holder Sabastian Sawe in the contest. Both won their respective London races in 2026. The resulting schedule puts the elite men's wheelchair and running races on Saturday, while the corresponding women's events retain the marathon's traditional Sunday slot. The decision establishes the elite programme for the event's previously announced two-day format.

The Sunday programme will also bring a change for women in the championship categories, who will start behind the elite women's field for the first time at the London event. The elite women's wheelchair race will begin ahead of them. London Marathon Events chief executive Hugh Brasher said the arrangement would give women's marathon racing a dedicated celebration within the expanded weekend.

The separation applies to the elite programme, rather than dividing all entrants by gender. The main participant fields on both Saturday and Sunday will include men, women and non-binary runners. Brasher said staging the elite races on different days would give the athletes greater visibility, describing the champions' game as an entertaining way to allocate their places in the schedule.

Organisers had already confirmed that the 2027 marathon would be held over two days as a one-off edition intended to accommodate more people. According to the BBC, a record 1.33 million people entered the ballot for next year's event. The expanded format is set to allow a record 100,000 participants to take part across the weekend, rather than concentrating the event on its usual single day.

The larger event is estimated to raise more than £150 million for charitable causes. That remains a projected total, while the latest announcement confirms how the elite races will be distributed across the two days.