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Marathon

More female runners in marathons than men, reveals IAAF report

According to the latest research done, there are more female runners in marathons than men.

More female runners in marathons than men, reveals IAAF report
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By

Karan Vinod

Published: 17 Oct 2019 3:02 PM GMT

For the first time, in 2018, more women ran marathons than men. A latest research shows that 50.24% of marathon runners were women. It was the biggest research report done by the International Association Athletics Federation (IAAF) and Denmark’s run repeat research firm revealed.

The sheer numbers of women marathon runners in the world are increasing. According to research, more than 50% of marathon runners are women. In fact, female runners have increased by 20% in the last 32 years. And for the very first time, more female runners took part in marathons last year than men. The percentage of female runners was 50.24.

Start of a marathon
Start of a marathon

Runners never get old, according to the research done by the IAAF and Denmark's research firm Run Repeat. The average age of runners has also increased during this time. The average age used to be 38, back in 1986, i.e. they used to run till that particular age. Now the number has risen to 40 which is a good thing.  

Simultaneously, the average age of a general runner has also increased from 35.2 back in 1986 to 39.3 now. The participation of female runners in 5km races is 60%.

And the country with the highest number of female runners is Iceland while Switzerland has the lowest with only 16% female runners. The span of research for this is over 32 years and across 70 thousand events. The research was done on 10.79 crore results of 193 countries. This is the biggest study in the history of athletics.

However, the participation of people in marathons had decreased over the last two years by 13%. There has been a 13% decrease in 5km races and a 25% decrease in half marathons. It has remained stable with the interest in marathons not diminishing at an alarming rate.

Another interesting statistic is that Switzerland’s female runner is faster than the male runner in 63% of the countries. According to the study, Spanish men and Swiss women are the fastest. Portugal is second and Norway is third.

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