It was the 40th anniversary of the TELCEL Mexico City Marathon on Sunday 27 August 2023, held at a punishing elevation in excess of 2,200 metres, and it should have been a wonderful celebration of sporting prowess in this World Athletics Gold Label Status event. Instead, an unwanted world record was set when 11,000 athletes were disqualified for allegedly cutting the course short by various means including using vehicles, bicycles, and even public transport.  

The 26.2-mile marathon starts at the Estadio Olimpico Universitario and passes landmarks including the futuristic building of Soumaya Museum, the symbolic monument of the Angel of Independence, and the postcard classic Palacio de Bellas Artes before finishing at Zócalo Capitalino, one of the largest city squares in the world.

The course is straight as an arrow for the first 10K and then goes into a complex tour of Mexico City. Organisers of Mexico City Marathon, having received many anonymous post-race complaints, reportedly disqualified 11,000 of the 30,000 participants after electronic trackers revealed they had not completed the full course.

In response to local press queries, the organisers put out this statement: "The Mexico City Sports Institute informs that it will proceed to identify those cases in which participants of the XL Mexico City Marathon Telcel 2023 have demonstrated an unsportsmanlike attitude during the event and will invalidate their registration times. This great event not only represents an outstanding celebration for all the inhabitants of the capital but also an occasion to reaffirm the transcendental values of sport."

Some runners have subsequently claimed their electronic chips, which are read at checkpoints every 5K on the route, had malfunctioned but this is not the first time there have been mass disqualifications in this race. Nearly 6,000 were disqualified in the 2017 race, representing 20% of the field, and 3,090 competitors were removed from the results after the 2018 race. 

This year’s men’s elite race was won by Bolivia’s Hector Garibay (2:08:23) and Celestine Chepchirchir (Kenya, 2:27:17) took the women's top prize.

All Mexico City Marathon finishers receive a medal, which since 2019 has included an iconic Mexico City building, and when put together the six awards from 2019-2024 will form a map of the city. This year's medal depicts Mexico City's Latin American Tower (see image above).

Photo of medals courtesy TELCEL Mexico City Marathon website