World Athletics recently published the 2026 Global Marathon Platinum Label events list in its official calendar.
As of today, there are 13 Platinum Label events for 2026, and China ranks first globally with 4 Platinum Label events (two full marathons and two half marathons), while the United States (three full marathons) ranks second.
Surprisingly, Japan's Tokyo Marathon does not appear in the latest calendar; the reason is unknown and it may be due to delayed data updates.
Compared with the 2025 platinum label event list, China has added one new platinum label race — Yangzhou Half Marathon. Dong Guojian once set the national record at the 2012 Yangzhou Half. Japan has three platinum label events in 2025 — Osaka Women's Marathon, Tokyo Marathon and Nagoya Women's Marathon — but none of them have appeared on the 2026 calendar yet.
For 2025, World Athletics set the global cap for platinum label events at 12, which excludes half marathons and women-only platinum events; last year there were exactly 12 full marathon platinum label races.
World Athletics has set the global cap for platinum label events at 13 for 2026, and the currently published calendar shows 11 full marathon events in total — which means there are two vacancies. Most likely one will be the Tokyo Marathon; where will the other one be?
At the same time, World Athletics also published the 2026 Marathon Gold Label event list, and we have tallied the 2026 Marathon Gold Label events in mainland China; as of December 2, there are eight in total.
They are the Wuxi Marathon, Lanzhou Marathon, Taiyuan Marathon, Dongying Marathon, Beijing Marathon, Hangzhou Marathon, Shenzhen Marathon and Guangzhou Marathon.
All dates have been confirmed: Wuxi is scheduled for March 22, Lanzhou for May 24, Beijing and Dongying are both on October 18, Hangzhou on November 1, Guangzhou on December 20.
Compared with the 2025 mainland China Gold Label marathon list, 11 fewer events, namelyShanghai 10K Elite Race, Changzhou West Taihu Lake Half Marathon, Shanghai Half Marathon, SCO Kunming Marathon, Nanjing Marathon, Xichang Qionghai Wetland Marathon, Harbin Marathon, Jilin Marathon, Jiaxing Marathon, Wuhan Marathon, Chongqing Marathon. It seems the tightening is not limited to domestic marathons; World Athletics also appears to be tightening.
Perhaps as the race calendar is further updated, the number of Gold Label events in mainland China may change again.
