London to host 2019 Marathon Championships

“We are proud to host the 2019 World Para Athletics Marathon Championships for a second time. London has always championed disability sport and we look forward to welcoming the world’s best Para athletes in April.”

London, Great Britain, will stage the 2019 World Para Athletics Marathon Championships on 28 April in association with the Virgin Money London Marathon.

The announcement was made by World Para Athletics and London Marathon Events Ltd on Thursday (31 January).

This will be the second time London has hosted the Championships following a successful first edition in 2015 which saw three world records broken on the streets of the British capital.

There will be five different medal events in the 2019 Marathon World Championships, which match the marathon events in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games programme:

• Men’s and women’s T12 (for athletes from classes T11/T12),

• Men’s T46 (for T45/T46 athletes)

• Men’s and women’s T54 (for T52/T53/T54 athletes).

The London Marathon will also be the first opportunity for athletes to earn slots for their National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) for Tokyo 2020. The top four ranked athletes in each medal event obtain one slot for their respective nation.

Haozhe Gao, Head of World Para Athletics, said: “London has staged top class Para athletics marathon events for more than two decades and we are delighted to see the World Marathon Championships return to the city in 2019 following the success of the 2015 Worlds with more than one hundred participants.

“This year’s World Championships will be of additional importance as the races will act as qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Fans in London will see the world’s best Para athletes in action with an extra motivation.”

Hugh Brasher, Event Director of the Virgin Money London Marathon, said: “We are proud to host the 2019 World Para Athletics Marathon Championships for a second time. London has always championed disability sport and we look forward to welcoming the world’s best Para athletes in April.”

Each country can enter a maximum of six athletes into each event and each athlete must have made the minimum qualification standard or been allocated a direct invitation.

The 2019 edition will see Great Britain’s David Weir – the most successful athlete in the history of the London Marathon – return to compete for the 20th consecutive year. Weir has won the race on eight occasions.

More information can be found on the World Para Athletics and Virgin Money London Marathon websites.