TCS Amsterdam Marathon crowned with World Athletics Platinum Label

Sport organisation Le Champion received the Platinum Label for Road Races for the TCS Amsterdam Marathon from the international athletics federation, the World Athletics. Besides the six World Marathon Majors (Tokyo, London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York), there are only six other marathons in the world that belong to this select group of Platinum Label holders. The new label is a recognition of the excellent organisation and the qualitative strong participating athletes. The 45th edition this year takes place on Sunday the 18th of October.

The Platinum Label of the World Athletics is since the end of 2018 a new category for road races, where there is a higher standard and service quality guaranteed in comparison with the Gold Label events. Since 2013 the TCS Amsterdam Marathon was in possession of the Gold Label. ‘’It is a great honour that we now have received the highest achievable appreciation of the World Athletics’’, stated by Cees Pronk director of Events & Sponsoring. ‘’With a lot of passion and effort of all parties involved we together achieved this great performance’’. The Platinum Label fully fits the ambitions we have in mind for the TCS Amsterdam Marathon.

Josu Devasia, managing director of title sponsor Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) The Netherlands: ‘’The TCS Amsterdam Marathon is a great event that really helped TCS to bring a healthy and sportive lifestyle to attention amongst our employees, customers and the society as a whole. As the first Dutch marathon to receive this Platinum label is a great achievement and a well-deserved recognition for the dedicated and passioned team of Le Champion. We look forward to the 10th edition with TCS as title partner later this year in order to enlarge the experience of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon together with Le Champion for runners and fans by technological and digital applications.

The final years the TCS Amsterdam Marathon has spectacularly grown on several areas and therefore has proven to be part of the biggest and most appealing marathons of the world. During the previous edition the total limit of participants of 45.000 runners was reached and the full marathon grew to a record number of 17.000 registrations. The participants came from over 140 different countries. At no other sports event in the Netherlands there are so many nationalities at the start. Highlights of the course are the start and finish at the Olympic Stadium, the passage underneath the Rijksmuseum, the many kilometres alongside the Amstel and the round through the Vondelpark. The TCS Amsterdam Marathon 2019 was broadcasted world-wide in 120 countries and 190 million households, with live-broadcasts in Europa, Africa, North America, Brazil, China, Asia and Australia.

The Platinum Label is thanks to the strong field of participating athletes, who are yearly at the start in Amsterdam. On the list of fastest marathon city’s Amsterdam is on the 6th place. The course record is for Lawrence Cherono, he ran a time of 2.04.06 in 2018. This is the fastest marathon time ever run in the Netherlands. At the women last year the course record was broken. The Ethiopian Degitu Azimeraw noted a sensational time of 2.19.26. Top athletes like to run in Amsterdam, because of the fast course and the good an tight organised race. The Platinum Label means that the participation of the fastest elite runners, who are also in possession of the platinum status of the World Athletics, is guaranteed. 

The crowning of the Platinum Label is also a reward for sponsors, the municipality of Amsterdam and many volunteers who are yearly involved with the organisation of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon. Thanks to the great cooperation Le Champion succeeded to organise an event of world class. With a lot of enthusiasm the organisation looks forward to the future with the milestone of the 50th edition in the year 2025. ‘’Ambitions for development of the marathon are focused on making the course faster and more appealing, a growth in the number of participants on the full marathon, a growth in the number of participating nationalities, making the event more sustainable and applying technology innovations together with our title partner Tata Consultancy Services’’, stated by René Wit, Race Director of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon.