Marathon Majors expanding

robinph

It's going to become more difficult to tick off all the marathon majors in a few years time as they are looking to expand the series:

https://www.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/en-gb/news-media/latest-news/item/wanda-group-announces-exclusive-ten-year-strategic-partnership-with-abbott-world-marathon-majors/

Not sure from the article if the new events will be part of the current scoring system for the prizes each year or not though. That could get very complicated even compared to how it is now if they have more than 6 events scoring over a two year period.

What races would be lined up to be upgraded to becoming a major?

sideswipe

I'd guess Dubai, maybe Hong Kong?

TRR_the_turd

This is the whole reason I never bought into the "majors" crap. Just a marketing ploy!

rainbow kirby

sideswipe wrote: »

I'd guess Dubai, maybe Hong Kong?

Seconding this - they do specify "Asia, outside of Japan" and both of those are pretty well recognised. Wouldn't be surprised to see one in mainland China as well.

Chivito550

Isn't the whole point about majors that they should be relatively rare and higher profile to the regular events and have a significant amount of history. There's 4 in tennis, 4 in golf. Adding more just dilutes the prestige regarding winning one. Imagine if Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Monte Carlo ATP events suddenly became tennis majors. It would be laughable.

Supercell

Interesting, the Chinese Wanda website says specifically that they intend one of the races to be in China.
I would have thought Beijing being the obvious choice, though Wanda are based in Dalian (a huge Chinese city) and there is an"international marathon" there annually so who knows?

Chivito550

Supercell wrote: »

Interesting, the Chinese Wanda website says specifically that they intend one of the races to be in China.
I would have thought Beijing being the obvious choice, though Wanda are based in Dalian (a huge Chinese city) and there is an"international marathon" there annually so who knows?

A marathon in smog. Mmmmm yes please!!

average_runner

Chivito550 wrote: »

A marathon in smog. Mmmmm yes please!!

All about the money

dwayneshintzy

sideswipe wrote: »

I'd guess Dubai, maybe Hong Kong?

Can't be Hong Kong....not terrifically well organised (no pacers, and the start line is mayhem), and a fairly boring route (75% of it is on motorway to and from the container port).

Pherekydes

In terms of quality, Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam could be high on the list, but as someone already mentioned, how many majors do you want?

Will anyone do a "Grand Slam"?