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Olympic Marathon Fields Shrink to 70 for LA 2028
World Athletics has cut both fields by 10 places, and qualifying opens November 1. The qualifying times come in December.
The men's and women's marathons at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will each have 70 starters, down from 80, under the qualification system World Athletics has released, Canadian Running reports. The qualifying window opens November 1 and closes April 30, 2028.
World Athletics says it will set entry standards so that about 40 percent of the field qualifies by time and 60 percent through its world rankings. Meeting the standard does not guarantee a place: if more athletes hit it than there are spots, the fastest qualify. National Olympic Committees get more flexibility to reallocate quota places, including to athletes who did not meet the standard.
The qualifying times themselves will not be published until December. For comparison, the standards World Athletics set for the 2027 World Championships are 2:06:00 for men and 2:23:20 for women, and in 2026 alone 89 men ran under 2:06 and 82 women under 2:23, according to the magazine.
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