After a ceremony at Lisbon City Hall, the president of the Maratona Clube de Portugal, Carlos Móia, admitted that “it was not easy” to reach this agreement with one of the biggest marathons in the world, but “the long friendship, the quality of the course, the beauty of the route, the beauty of the cities” helped.

“London had 840,000 applications for 55,000 places. Therefore, practically 800,000 people were left out of the competition. This partnership means that London is starting to see Lisbon as an option for them to come running. This is basically the fundamental point of this partnership”, he admitted.

Carlos Móia said that “marketing will be done to promote and advise those who do not have a place in London to come and run in the Lisbon marathon”.

“The impact that this could have is that we have, more or less, an average of six to eight thousand athletes who sign up, but in the end only 4.5 to five thousand finish, in other words, it’s a small marathon. With this help from London, we are thinking of increasing it to 15,000 for next year, and 20,000 for the second year after that. This brings, according to the calculations that were made, an economic impact, in financial terms, of around 60 million euros for the cities, for Lisbon, naturally, but for Cascais and Oeiras”, he said.

The Lisbon marathon will be held on a Saturday, which will allow athletes to spend more time in Portugal, and a change to the start of the route is also planned.

“They will start in Carcavelos, at the foot of the University, which has all that very wide space, where it can accommodate thousands and thousands of people, and then go to Cascais, go around Cascais, at Boca do Inferno, and come to Lisbon”, he said.

At a ceremony attended by the Mayors of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, and Cascais, Carlos Carreiras, the Executive Director of the London Marathon Group, Nick Bitel, said that this partnership begins because “there are values shared” between the two races.

“I know that by working together we can make the Lisbon Marathon one of the best in the world,” he assured.

The Mayor of Lisbon (CML) assured that this is “a great day for Lisbon, Oeiras and Cascais and for sport”, remembering “the passion and ambition” of Carlos Móia when he launched the Lisbon Marathon in 1986.

“We want to place the Lisbon Marathon among the best in the world. The London Marathon is an icon of world sport and by associating ourselves with it we know we can go further. We want to put it in the world's top 10”, assured Carlos Moedas.

The 2025 edition of the Lisbon Marathon is scheduled for October 25.