The 2026 Guangzhou Marathon registration portal officially opened today (September 2, 2026) at 10:00 AM; registration closes at 6:00 PM on September 11, 2026.

What’s different about this year’s Guangzhou Marathon?

The race is scheduled to gun off on December 20, 2026 (Sunday), one day earlier than last year, and will use four gun times across nine start zones for staggered starts:

07:00, Elite and A/B zones

07:10, C/D zones

07:20, E/F zones

07:30, G/H zones

There is a single full marathon event; the start remains at Tianhe Sports Center and the finish is at Haixinsha.

The cutoff time has been adjusted to 6 hours, and a new national marathon record prize has been added (men’s and women’s prizes of 120,000 yuan each).

The field has been expanded to 30,000 runners, an increase of 4,000 spots compared with the past two years’ 26,000.

The 2024 Guangzhou Marathon field was 26,000; there were 112,987 applicants, with a lottery success rate of 23%.

In 2025 the field remained at 26,000; applicants exceeded 140,000, with a lottery success rate of about 18%.

With the increased quota, will this year’s applicant numbers set a new record? Will they surpass the 200,000 mark?

The registration fee is 180 yuan per person, up from 160 yuan per person in previous years — an increase of 20 yuan.

2026 Guangzhou Marathon direct-entry requirements:

1. Guangzhou Marathon Loyal Runners

Runners who have completed 10 editions of the Guangzhou Marathon in total (any event) may receive direct entry. Last year the requirement was participation in 11 consecutive editions.

2. Guangzhou Marathon Elite Runners

The 2026 Guangzhou Marathon allocates 5,000 elite runner slots. If a registrant’s result meets the qualifying standard for their age group, they will receive direct entry.

If the total number of direct-entry qualifiers does not exceed 5,000, all qualifying entrants will be granted direct entry.

If the total exceeds 5,000 people, each age group's actual number of direct qualifiers will be calculated by taking that group's share of the total qualifiers and multiplying by 5,000, and slots will be awarded based on performance ranking.

Please note: only A-category marathon results recorded between September 11, 2024 and September 11, 2026 are valid (the elite runner criteria for 2025 require participation in any one of the most recent five Guangzhou Marathon editions, and there is an additional half‑marathon standard):

Under 34 years
Men 3:00:00; Women 3:20:00

35-39 years
Men 3:10:00; Women 3:30:00

40-44 years
Men 3:15:00; Women 3:35:00

45-49 years
Men 3:20:00; Women 3:40:00

50-54 years
Men 3:30:00; Women 3:50:00

55-59 years
Men 3:40:00; Women 4:00:00

60-64 years
Men 3:50:00; Women 4:20:00

65 years and over
Men 4:00:00; Women 4:30:00

Are you planning to register for this year's Guangzhou Marathon?