Since it was launched last year, the World Marathon Majors series has added even more attraction to five of the greatest marathons in the world: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. After the inaugural year of the series, the race directors of the WMM announced some impressive figures: 154,596 runners finished their races; 6.6 million spectators lined the five courses; and charity running raised more than $110 million. The economic impact for the five WMM cities reached $400 million. Add to that the stellar elite fields of each race, the scoring system and different courses, and the WMM is on its way to becoming running’s answer to Formula 1 car racing.
“We waited a long time for a series like this,” says Paul Tergat of Kenya, who set the world record of 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003. “The World Marathon Majors give us elite athletes a chance to concentrate on the most important events.”
“We are beginning to see the fact that the WMM series is having an influence in the athlete’s life,” notes Guy Morse, executive director of the Boston Marathon. “It’s an opportunity to really take your running to another level and really make an impact on the sport. We’re beginning to see that influence is beginning to take hold. I think it’s going to take more than just one year, however, to really have the series shake out and become even more of a dominant influence.”
Despite being linked in the WMM series, the marathons will retain their individuality. For example, the top men and women at Boston this year earned $100,000 in prize money, compared to $55,000 for the winners of London. On the other hand, London’s budget for appearance money is greater than that of any other race in the world.
WMM efforts to bring more visibility to marathoning are mixed so far. One nice touch has been elite participants in Boston and London running in individualized tops, rather than in identical tops supplied by their shoe sponsors. This feature allows spectators and members of the media to better identify specific runners.
At the same time, there’s still some work to do on two fronts: So far there is neither a title sponsor for the World Marathon Majors nor are all of the races broadcast on TV. “It is an important goal to see our races on TV internationally,” says Morse. “We are working on that.” The missing sponsor for the jackpot of $1 million seems to be no major concern for the WMM races at this point, even if each race has to contribute $200,000. David Bedford, race director of the London Marathon, looks at it calmly: “We continue to talk to a number of companies. There is interest out there. The challenge that we have is placing an additional series sponsor in a way where it doesn’t impact on the individual sponsorship arrangements that each of our marathons have.” Another task the WMM faces if they want to establish themselves in the long term is incorporating citizen runners into the series. “We are working on such things at the moment, as we have about 30,000-plus runners in each of our races,” says Mark Milde, race director of the Berlin Marathon. “We are quite sure that we will have some news on this when the 2008 series starts.”
Wolfgang Konrad, race director of this Sunday’s Vienna Marathon, already has an idea toward that end: “They would need something like a second league,” he says. “Fun runners could secure themselves race entry for one of the WMM events when competing in one of the second-league marathons.” In London and New York, the demand for bib numbers at least doubles the figure of the entry limit. Tying their registration to the highly desired WMM slots could help races such as Vienna, Paris, Rotterdam, Hamburg and Frankfurt could benefit. “And every runner would have the unique chance to participate in a WMM race,” adds Konrad. “To run all five could become a major goal in life, like others want to climb the highest mountain once in their life.”
Rules and Current Leader Board
One series of the World Marathon Majors comprises WMM races from two years. The inaugural series started in April 2006 and ends in November 2007. The periods overlap, which means that there will be an annual winner from this year on. The 2007-2008 series began with the Boston Marathon. From now on athletes will score for two series at once. Besides the five annual races in Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York, the Olympic Marathon and IAAF World Championships Marathon belong to the WMM series.
To be eligible for the jackpot, an athlete must compete in a minimum of one WMM race during each year of the series; a maximum of four races count. Athletes earn points by placing among the top five in these races. The winner gets 25 points, followed by 15, 10, 5 and one point. In the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker will be a review of any head-to-head competitions between the tied athletes during the series. If this does not apply, the final decision would be a majority vote from the five World Marathon Majors race directors. The prize purse stands at $1 million, and will be split equally between the top male and top female champions at the conclusion of each scoring period.
Leader board of the 2006-2007 WMM series
Men
- Robert K. Cheruiyot (Kenya) 75 Points
- Martin Lel (Kenya) 40
- Felix Limo (Kenya) 35
- Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) 25
Marilson Gomes dos Santos (Brazil) 25
Stephen Kiogrora (Kenya) 25
Women
- Jelena Prokopcuka (Latvia) 55 points
- Gete Wami (Ethiopia) 40
- Rita Jeptoo (Kenya) 35
- Berhane Adere (Ethiopia) 30
- Deena Kastor (United States) 26
Lidiya Grigoryeva (Russia) 26
