It’s no secret that the Trinidad Alfonso Valencia Marathon in Spain boasts one of many quickest programs and deepest marathon fields on this planet. For the second consecutive 12 months, the boys’s and girls’s winner in Valencia has recorded a time underneath 2:01 and a couple of:16. Whereas Valencia isn’t a part of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors, it continues to draw a number of the world’s fastest-distance runners. To set Valencia aside, organizers have an added incentive to the 2024 race—a million euros (CDN $1,400,000) for the person or girl to interrupt the marathon world file on the course.

Juan Roig: “Queremos anunciar que cuando se bata el récord del mundo, daremos un millón de euros, si lo hace en Valencia. Le daremos medio millón Paco (Borao) y otro medio yo al que gane, porque una de nuestras ilusiones es que se bata el récord en Valencia”. pic.twitter.com/Uxf1TkjjAg

— EL NEGOCIO DEL RUNNING (@Asb71atleta) December 5, 2023

The announcement got here on Monday from Juan Roig, the president of the Trinidad Alfonso Basis, who mentioned to Spanish information that it’s his dream to witness the marathon world file shattered in Valencia: “We need to announce that whoever breaks the world file will obtain a million euros, in the event that they break it in Valencia.” This quantity would mark the biggest prize purse/bonus from a marathon up to now, surpassing the Nagoya Girls’s Marathon in Japan, which awards USD $250,000 to the champion.

At this 12 months’s Valencia Marathon, over 30 males ran underneath the Olympic commonplace of two:08:10. A time, which might have positioned them inside the highest 10 at most marathon majors this 12 months. Valencia has grown over the previous decade and has grow to be a hub for distance operating, evidenced by the world data set by Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei and Ethiopia’s Letensebet Gidey within the 10,000m in 2021.

At this 12 months’s race, Cheptegei made his marathon debut, falling barely in need of his sub-2:04 aim, ending in 2:08:59 for thirty seventh place general. The occasion additionally featured one of the vital illustrious distance runners in historical past, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who took fourth in a brand new masters 40+ world file of two:04:19.

Así ha llegado a meta Joshua Cheptegei en su debut maratoniano pic.twitter.com/Hg5yh4NZsY

— LBDC / SPORT (@BolsaCorredor) December 3, 2023

The boys’s marathon world file holder Kelvin Kiptum has already revealed his racing plans for 2024. The 24-year-old, with a private finest of two:00:35, will try the world file at April’s Rotterdam Marathon earlier than gearing up for the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games with Staff Kenya. Kiptum got here onto the scene on the Valencia Marathon final 12 months, successful the race in 2:01:53, marking the quickest males’s marathon debut.

In response to Forbes, Roig is without doubt one of the richest males in Spain, with a internet value of $3.6 billion. Roig and his enterprise companion, Valencia race director Paco Borao, stay assured that the world file will sometime come to them, and they’re dedicated to doing no matter it takes to draw the world’s quickest athletes to compete there. “Someday it can come,” mentioned Roig to Spanish information. “We’ll combat for it.”