Catherine Debrunner beat Sabastian Sawe in a hand game witnessed by an official adjudicator, and that was enough to settle one of the more unusual scheduling questions in road-running history.
The Swiss wheelchair racer’s win means the elite men and men’s wheelchair races will open the weekend on Saturday 24 April 2027, with the elite women and women’s wheelchair events following on Sunday 25 April.
The contest holds a Guinness World Records title as the first elite marathon start ever decided by rock, paper, scissors.
Two world record holders in the game
The two athletes came into the throw with matching credentials. Sawe is the men’s world record holder after clocking 1:59:30 in London in April 2026, the first legal sub-two-hour marathon. Debrunner holds the women’s wheelchair world record of 1:34:16, set in Berlin in 2023, and has won London four times.
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Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, called the throw an entertaining way to pick a day for each elite race.
“Splitting the elite races will allow us to shine an even brighter spotlight on the extraordinary athletes taking part,” Brasher said.
“I’m particularly looking forward to the elite women’s start on Sunday, when, for the first time in London, female athletes in the Championship categories will line up behind the women’s elite field.”
A one-off Double for 100,000 runners
The 2027 edition is a one-time format. London Marathon Events announced in June 2026 that the race would run over two days on the same Greenwich-to-Westminster course, spreading a projected 100,000 finishers across the weekend.
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The organisers pulled a record 1,338,544 ballot entries for 2027 and are targeting more than £150m in charity fundraising.
Ballot-selected runners have already been assigned a day and cannot choose between them. Race week opens on Friday 23 April 2027 with the TCS Mini London Marathon.
