Research released to the International Association of Athletics Federations’ (IAAF) first Global Running Conference in Lanzhou in China shows that, for the first time in history, there were more female runners than male runners in 2018, with 50.23 per cent of runners being female.
The research, conducted by the IAAF and RunRepeat.com, has been drawn from the largest study of race results in history.
The conclusions presented are based on data from more than 107 million race results across more than 70,000 races from 1986 to 2019 mostly in Europe and North America.
The Conference discussed the benefits that mass participation road races bring to host cities, the economic benefits to cities, the health benefits to participants and their demographics, as well as best practices for organising events in environmentally sustainable ways.
More people run than do any other sport on the planet, but a trend towards sedentary lifestyles, particularly among young people, still threatens the health of communities, the 600 attendees heard.
That warning was delivered by the IAAF chief executive Jon Ridgeon, a silver medallist in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1987 World Championships in Rome, in his opening address to a three-day conference involving representatives of 100 IAAF Label races from around the world.
You can read more on the IAAF Global Running Conference via ‘Inside the games‘ here.
You can view the full report here.
