London Marathon Club places

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FreshStart 7 Dec 12:29pm, 7 Dec 2023 5,514 posts	0 FreshStart TCS London Marathon have sent information to all affiliated clubs regarding club entries for the 2024 TCS London Marathon. Following a detailed review of the use of club entries allocated in recent years, TCS London Marathon are introducing a new ratio of places per member for affiliated running clubs. The number of entries allocated to a club is based on the number of first-claim members aged 18 or over at the club who are registered with England Athletics (or other Home Country) as of Tuesday 25 July 2023. They report that in 2023, only 69 per cent (1,350) of the 1,980 entries allocated to clubs were used and for the 2024 event the total number of entries allocated to clubs is being reduced to 1,515. englandathletics.org
Foxy 7 Dec 12:38pm, 7 Dec 2023 34,603 posts	0 Foxy my club which is a small one of about 40 affilated & didn't get a place this year. Sad to see places not used but 69% - 72% is the annual no show rate which is factored in. There's an argument that club runner have a chance of GFA ?
larkim 7 Dec 12:40pm, 7 Dec 2023 22,777 posts	0 larkim Obviously an awful lot of club athletes run London anyway as they qualify via GFA or better, but this is another reduction in the capacity for athletes who don't quite make that GFA bar but who are equally valuable members of the sport of athletics within the UK. It's a shame they've completely removed the under 10 members grouping; but that's possibly a selfish reflection on my part being one of only a small handful of adult members of a club which is primarily for children. Poor though that 31% of the places were unused.
larkim 7 Dec 12:43pm, 7 Dec 2023 22,778 posts	0 larkim Maybe a bit of a generalisation here, but I suspect a higher proportion of female club members could get in via GFA than male club members, if we assume that athletics club members tend to be drawn from people who are slightly more motivated by the competitive side of distance running than the general population. With female GFA criteria being easier relative to WAVA grades than male GFA criteria, marginally more men than women will be affected by clubs not getting these places. (Men get enough privilege as it is, so I don't write this with any sense of male entitlement!)