Rock, paper, scissors seals split schedule for record 2027 London Marathon

The scheduling of next year's London Marathon elite races was settled in recent days by a showdown far removed from the usual tactics of distance running: a game of rock, paper, scissors. The contest, played out between the reigning men's world record holder Sabastian Sawe and women's wheelchair world record holder Catherine Debrunner, determined which of the two race days will host the men's events and which will belong to the women.

Both athletes arrived at the ritual with recent London victories on their résumés. Sawe, the men's world record holder and 2026 London Marathon champion, produced one of the most remarkable feats in the sport's history on the capital's course, becoming the first runner to break the two-hour barrier in a marathon. Debrunner, who claimed the women's wheelchair title in the same 2026 edition, is herself the holder of the world record over the marathon distance in her discipline and one of the dominant wheelchair racers of her generation.

The result handed the elite men's race and the men's wheelchair race to the opening day, Saturday 24 April. The women's races — the elite women's marathon and the women's championship categories — will be contested on the Sunday, 25 April. Both days are part of an event that will be staged over two days for the first time in the race's history, and organisers have been clear that the format is intended to be a one-off rather than a permanent change to the traditional Sunday-only programme.

Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, said the pair's contest was an entertaining way to settle a question that would otherwise have been decided by officials alone. "Sabastian and Catherine's rock, paper, scissors battle was an entertaining way to decide which day would host each elite race," he said.

For Brasher, the split carries significance beyond novelty. He argued that dividing the elite programme across two days will allow the organisers to give greater exposure to the quality field assembled for the race, something he believes is not always possible when every championship contest is compressed into a single morning alongside the mass field.

The two-day decision was confirmed earlier in the year, when organisers announced that the 2027 edition would be spread across a Saturday and a Sunday in what has been described as a momentous one-off iteration of the event. The stated driver was participation: by moving events off a single day, the organisers hope to create capacity for more runners than the traditional format allows.

The scale of interest behind that aim is extraordinary. A record 1.33 million people entered the ballot for next year's race, the highest figure in the event's history. In 2027, organisers say a record-breaking 100,000 participants will take part, and they estimate that more than £150m will be raised for charitable causes — a figure that reflects both the size of the entry and the broadening of the race's charitable footprint.

One of the most visible changes falls on the Sunday programme. The women's championship categories, which have traditionally been separated from the elite race, will line up directly behind the elite women's field for the first time on the London course. Brasher described the move as a celebration of women's marathon racing, and said the outstanding elite women's wheelchair field will begin the action just ahead of the elite women, creating what he called a true celebration of the women's race.

The reshaping of the programme does not stop there. The main events on both days will feature a mixed field of male, female and non-binary participants, a continuation of the organisers' effort to make the marathon a broad, inclusive event rather than a series of segregated contests stacked one after another across a single morning.

There are practical consequences for the wider race too. With 100,000 entrants spread across two days, the start process, the rolling closure of the course through central London and the logistics of supporting multiple fields will all be more complicated than in a standard edition. Two elite fields on a Saturday and two on a Sunday also present a scheduling challenge for broadcasters, who will have to weigh the value of live coverage of the men's race against the traditional pull of a Sunday-morning showcase — and the split gives them two chances to build audience figures rather than one.

The choice of Debrunner and Sawe as the decision-makers was also shrewd. Both are internationally recognised names, both are British-based marquee figures of the sport, and both had a personal stake in the outcome: Sawe will defend a course on which he rewrote the sport's most famous barrier, while Debrunner will race the wheelchair competition that anchors the opening of the elite programme. Whatever the symbolism of the game itself, the two-day structure now has two of the sport's biggest names publicly associated with it.

For the thousands of club runners and first-time entrants who applied for a place among the record ballot, the details are more prosaic but equally consequential. Saturday means an extra travel night and a different race-day routine for anyone travelling to London, while runners on both days will need to confirm which of the two mornings their wave starts. For those who missed out on the ballot, the expansion of the field is the most welcome news of all.

The 2027 London Marathon is now a genuine two-day racing festival rather than a single day with a marathon attached: elite and wheelchair contests on the Saturday, a women's programme that begins with the world's best wheelchair racers and continues through the elite and championship fields on the Sunday, and mass participation running spread across both. The final piece of the puzzle — which day belongs to whom — was decided with three gestures and a grin, and the marathon world appears to be no less interested for it.