Nepal’s veteran marathoner Santoshi shares experience running London Marathon-2025
LONDON: A high number of participants have registered their names for London marathon, which has World Record for the largest number of finishers, for 2026 as compared to this year.
A total of 56,640 participants had completed the determined 42-kilometer marathon this year. Chief Executive of organizer, London Marathon Events, Hugh Brasher, said the number of participants registering their names for the marathon for 2026 has shown that the marathon would set a new world record in 2026. The London Marathon has been recently organized.
A total of 1.133 people have registered their names for the London Marathon, 2026 till May 2, the last date for registering the names while 840,318 people across the world had registered their names in the marathon in 2025. Of them, more than 100 Nepali had participated in the marathon.
Nepal’s ‘Golden Girl’ breaks her own record
National runner of Nepal, Santoshi Shrestha, was one of the participants in the London Marathon.
Known as ‘Golden Girl’ in Nepali Sports, Santoshi set a new record participating in the London Marathon for the first time. She completed the determined distance in two hours 42 minutes and 50 seconds.
Although Santoshi has experience of running along with hundreds of competitors, it was her first time running among tens of thousands of people.
While participating in the London Marathon, she earlier felt lost in the crowd and unable to find the way.
“Later I ran with determination no matter how many people were there. I had to finish the race well for myself and the country,” said Santoshi.
She remembered her participation in women marathon for the first time in Paris Olympic and shared experience that there was drastic change in these two marathons.
Santoshi has won the titles of dozens of national-level marathons. Santoshi, who set a new national record by running the London Marathon with the financial support of Nepal Run UK, told RSS before returning to Nepal, “I met many international athletes and coaches, including the winners of the London Marathon. Everyone encouraged me that I could improve a lot. It’s a big success for me.”
Founder of Nepal Run UK, Santosh Rai, has also set a Guinness World Record by running the London Marathon in Daura Suruwal, the Nepali national dress. He completed the distance in 2 hours 59 minutes and 47 seconds.
All the 96 participants who ran the London Marathon in the coordination of Nepal Run UK completed the stipulated distance.
But apart from the participants who took part in the coordination of Nepal Run UK, many Nepalis participated in the London Marathon on individual basis as well.
In this year’s London Marathon, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe won the title towards men’s category finishing the race in 2 hours 2 minutes 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa won the title towards the women category, finishing the race in 2 hours 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
The London Marathon 2025 was held on April 27.
