Running News Daily

World Athletics has given running a new home — and placed one of the sport’s most experienced event leaders at the heart of it.

The global governing body has established a standalone Running & Mass Participation department, a major organisational move designed to give greater focus to the rapidly expanding running ecosystem. At its helm is Jakob Larsen, a veteran sports executive whose résumé already includes some of the most significant running events staged under the World Athletics banner.

Larsen arrives with 25 years of experience across international sport and has played a central role in developing and delivering major championships. His previous work includes the 2014 World Half Marathon Championships in Copenhagen, the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Aarhus and, most recently, the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest.

Those experiences give Larsen a particularly strong platform for his new assignment. Rather than building the running side of the sport from the ground up, he inherits a global movement that is already enormous — one that stretches from elite marathoners chasing world records to mass-participation runners filling city streets across the world.

The new department will have responsibility for a broad portfolio covering World Athletics’ road running and marathon activities, cross country, mountain and trail running, the World Athletics Label Road Races programme, regulation, technical and educational services, and the development of new partnerships across technology, data and the wider running industry.

That portfolio also includes the newly established RUN X™ World Treadmill Championship, reflecting how far the definition of competitive running is continuing to expand beyond the traditional racecourse.

The scale of the road-running network alone underlines the importance of the move. The World Athletics Label Road Races calendar features races across continents, ranging from major marathons and half marathons to shorter international road races. The programme includes some of the biggest names in the sport, from Boston and London to Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo and New York.

For World Athletics, the decision is therefore about much more than changing an organisational chart. It signals recognition that running has developed into one of the sport’s most powerful global platforms, connecting elite competition with millions of recreational and mass-participation runners.

And with Larsen now leading the new department, World Athletics is placing that responsibility in the hands of someone who has already demonstrated an ability to build major events, manage complex international projects and understand where the future of running may be heading.

The challenge now is to bring all those strands together — elite road racing, mass participation, championships, trail and mountain running, technology and new forms of competition — under one coordinated vision.

Running has never been bigger. Now, World Athletics is giving it the organisational structure to match.

A route has been approved for the Olympic marathon, which is to be held in the northern city of Sapporo to avoid the Japanese capital's summer heat, Tokyo 2020 organizers said Friday. A dummy-run marathon will take place on May 5 to test the circuit, which starts and ends at Sapporo Odori Park in the city center, the organizing committee said.

The controversial decision to relocate the marathon and race-walking events was made in November 2019, before the Games were postponed by a year due to the coronavirus.

The Tokyo Olympics are now due to open in July 2021, and officials are insisting they will go ahead even if the pandemic is not under control.

The marathon will have three laps -- the first much longer, crossing the Toyohira River, while the second and third laps repeat a section of the first.

"Sapporo has a rich background in road running, particularly marathon events, and we want to inspire... fans around the world to travel to Sapporo for its future mass races," said Jakob Larsen, competition and events director for World Athletics, which has approved the route.

It is not exactly the same route as the annual Hokkaido Marathon in the city, but "it does follow much of the traditional course", he added.

Olympic officials first proposed moving the marathon after disastrous scenes at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships, where dozens of athletes needed medical attention in hot and humid conditions.The Tokyo Olympics are now due to open in July 2021, and officials are insisting they will go ahead even if the pandemic is not under control.

The marathon will have three laps -- the first much longer, crossing the Toyohira River, while the second and third laps repeat a section of the first.

"Sapporo has a rich background in road running, particularly marathon events, and we want to inspire... fans around the world to travel to Sapporo for its future mass races," said Jakob Larsen, competition and events director for World Athletics, which has approved the route.

It is not exactly the same route as the annual Hokkaido Marathon in the city, but "it does follow much of the traditional course", he added.

Olympic officials first proposed moving the marathon after disastrous scenes at the 2019 Doha World Athletics Championships, where dozens of athletes needed medical attention in hot and humid conditions.

It became a major sticking point between Tokyo officials and the International Olympics Committee, but eventually the city gave its grudging support for the move.

Kenya’s Jorum Okombo and Alex Korio will be hoping to improve on their respective second and third finishes at the 2018 Copenhagen Half Marathon on September 16. Organizers have assembled one of the deepest half marathon fields in history of the road race. “An elite field boasting 17 sub-60-minute men, including three of the four fastest half marathon runners over the past six years, is proof of an extremely high level,” says Jakob Larsen, director of the Danish Athletics Federation. Abraham Cheroben will be back to defend his title, having won last year in a world-leading 58:40. His main opposition looks set to come from Berlin Half Marathon champion Erick Kiptanui, Okombo and Korio. Kiptanui has announced that he will be attacking the world record in Copenhagen. The women’s race also boasts superb depth as it contains seven runners with PBs faster than 68:00.

The elite field for the Danish capital race includes a phenomenal 16 sub-60 minute men and eight sub-68 minute women including the European 5000m champion.  Sifan Hassan (photo) will race for the first time over 13.1 miles at the Copenhagen Half Marathon on Sunday, September 16. The Dutch star is among a stellar field for the annual Danish capital half marathon event, that includes 16 men who have run under the hour and eight women who have dipped inside 68 minutes. Having focused predominately on 1500m racing in the past, Hassan joined the US-based Nike Oregon Project in 2016 and has been working towards the longer distances ever since, with European 5000m gold this month in Berlin her crowning moment thus far. The previous month, Hasan also broke the European record and Dutch national record with a 14:22.34 performance at the Diamond League in Rabat. The Ethiopian born athlete will be joined by American training partners Galen Rupp and Jordan Hasay on the streets of Copenhagen, as the US pair warm up for the Chicago Marathon in October. “In the world of running, it is said that CPH Half is going to be the most exciting half marathon in decades,” said Jakob Larsen, director of the Danish Athletics Federation and member of the IAAF Road Race Commission.