LONDON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A record total number of 386,050 applicants from around the world registered for a ballot place in the 2018 London Marathon when the application system closed on Friday 5 May, organizers said here on Tuesday.
This is the highest number of applicants for any marathon in the world.
327,516 of those applicants were from the UK, 73,586 up from the previous UK applicant record of 253,930 for the 2017 event - an increase of nearly 29 percent. A total of 58,534 people applied in the overseas ballot.
Just over 58 percent of the UK applications for 2018 were from people who have never run a marathon and more than 45 percent of the total UK applicants were women (also a new record).
"These record-breaking numbers reflect the huge success of the 37th London Marathon on 23 April," said Hugh Brasher, Event Director for London Marathon Events. "One of our goals is to inspire people to take up sport and it's fantastic that more than 191,000 people from the UK have been inspired to apply to run a marathon for the first time in 2018.
"In 1981, less than 300 of the 6,300 finishers were women. More than 149,000 women from the UK have applied to run next year and, in another first, there were more female than male first time marathon runners from the UK who applied this year (51.7 percent vs 48.3 percent).
