World Marathon Majors

The World Marathon Majors (WMM) is a new series of competition launched collectively by the following 5 world's leading marathons on 23 Jan 2006 :
BAA Boston Marathon
Virgin London Marathon
BMW Berlin Marathon
Bank of Chicago Marathon
ING New York City Marathon

In additional to the above 5 races, this championship-style competition also includes 2 other qualifying non-annual races, viz
- The IAAF World Championship (held once every odd year) and
- The Olympic Games (in years divisible by 4)

Each WMM series spans over 2 years, the inaugural 2006-2007 series was launched at the 110th Boston Marathon on 17 April 17 2006 and concluded on 4 November 2007 at the ING New York City Marathon.

Every new WMM series offers a USD500,000 jackpot each to the top Male and Female marathoners based on the points system of the WMM.

Some statistics about WMM:
............... Since - Capacity - Largest* ----- 2010* - Sp'tators - CR (M) - CR(W)
Boston -- 1897 - 25,000 - 35,868 (1996) - 22,540 - 500k -- 2:03:02 - 2:20:43
London - 1981 - 35,700 - 36,550 (2010) - 36,550 - 1m ----- 2:05:10 - 2:15;25
Berlin -- 1974 - 40,000 - 35,913 (2008) - 34,002 - 1.5m --- 2:03:59 - 2:19:46
Chicago -1977 - 45,000 - 36,088 (2010) - 36,088 - 1.7m --- 2:05:41 - 2:17:18
N York -1970 - 45,000 - 45,103 (2010) - 45,103 -- 2m ----- 2:07:43
* Number of finishers

The 2009/2010 series was won by the late Sammy Wanjiru (KEN) (75 points) followed by Tsegaye Kebede (ETH) (65 pts) and Emmanuel Mutai (KEN) (50pts) while Liliya Shobukhova (RUS) (85points) won the women section followed by Irina Mikitenko (GER) (41pts) and Salina Kosgei (KEN) (36pts)

Meanwhile the top 2010/11 Leader Board as of April stands as follows:
Men:
1) Emmanuel Mutai (KEN) - 55 points
2) Tsegaye Kebede (ETH) - 41 points
3) Geoffrey Mutai (KEN) - 40 points
4) Gebre Gebremariam (ETH) - 35 points
5) Patrick Makau (KEN) - 35 points

Women:
1) Liliya Shobukhova (RUS) - 65 points
2) Mary Keitany (KEN) - 35 points
3) Edna Kiplagat (KEN) - 35 points
4) Brzunesh Bekele (ETH) - 25 points
5) Teyba Erkesso (ETH) - 25 points

Ref.: World Marathon Majors

Final 2010-2011 Standings:
http://worldmarathonmajors.com/US/news/316/