London Marathon raises record $84.21 mln for charity

Runners at this year’s London Marathon raised 63.7 million pounds ($84.21 million) for charity, setting a new world record for an annual single day fundraising event for a 12th successive year.

The organizers said the new record was an increase of more than 2 million pounds on the previous record total of 61.5 million pounds from 2017.

The total raised for charity since Virgin Money took over as title sponsors of the annual 26.2 mile race in 2010 is now more than 500 million pounds.

“We salute every runner who has contributed to this amazing world record total of £63.7 million, a truly incredible sum from a one day event,” event director Hugh Brasher said in a statement on Thursday.

“We are constantly working to grow the event and its positive impacts as society, health services and charities face ever-increasing pressure on their services and funding.

Funding recreational projects

“The London Marathon Charitable Trust has enabled hundreds of thousands more people to get active through its funding of a huge range of recreational projects.”

Eliud Kipchoge, who broke the world record in Berlin last weekend, took his third London title in April and fellow Kenyan Vivian Cheruiyot won the women’s race. The event featured a record 40,273 finishers.

More than 400,000 runners have entered the ballot for next year’s marathon, breaking the event’s own world record for registrations.