VOV.VN – For the second consecutive year, the Halong Bay Heritage International Marathon has retained the World Athletics Label. The Halong Bay Heritage Marathon 2026 aims to attract 18,000 participants, the highest number ever recorded.
On August 2, the Organizing Committee of the Halong Bay Heritage Marathon (Halong Bay Heritage Marathon) announced its plans for the 2026 season. The event will take place from November 20 to 22, 2026, with the official race day scheduled for Sunday, November 22.
To date, this is the only running event in Vietnam to receive the World Athletics Label Road Race from World Athletics. In the 2025 season, athlete Kennedy Kiprop Chelimo completed the 42km distance in 2:13:57, breaking the race record and establishing the Halong Bay Heritage Marathon as “The Fastest Race in the Region.”
The 2026 season is expected to bring together 18,000 athletes competing across four distances: 42km full marathon, 21km half marathon, 10km and 5km. The start and finish areas will be located at the Quang Ninh Province Planning, Fair and Exhibition Palace on Tran Quoc Nghien coastal road, Ha Long Ward. The course will be fully closed in both directions and was previously ranked among the Top 50 most beautiful running courses in the world by Runner’s World UK. To maintain the World Athletics Label standard, the Organizing Committee will further upgrade its multi-level medical and rescue system, race-course safety measures and doping control procedures.
Nguyen Thanh Tung, Deputy Director of the Quang Ninh Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, affirmed that Quang Ninh is developing its cultural industries, tourism economy, event economy and night-time economy, with the goal of establishing a year-round event calendar to address the seasonal nature of tourism. The requirement for the Organizing Committee is to shift from the mindset of organizing a single event to building an event brand, positioning the race as an influential running event in the Asian region.
Attending the launch ceremony, Hong Sun, Honorary Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Vietnam (KOCHAM), commented: “The Halong Bay Heritage Marathon is a very notable event for Korean runners as well as Korean investors. The race meets all three requirements of sports, culture and tourism. We will widely promote it. This is a very good opportunity to expand the number of Korean tourists visiting Ha Long and Vietnam.”
