We just published our men's and women's marathon preview for 2017 London Worlds.
The fields are amazing. On the women's side, there are 10 sub-2:22 women. On the men's side, the 2017 Dubai, Boston and London champs are all entered.
It always blows my mind that someone from a poor country would give up a paid appearance at major marathon to run Worlds. Love of country, I get but there are limited racing opportunities for marathoners.
I'm wondering how it works financially. I'm sure there must be an agent or race director on here who knows and can tell me why so many studly African runners show up for Worlds each year?
I asked a race director once and they said, "Well if they win Worlds, they then are a name and can get appearance fees moving forward." Ok, I get that but only one person is going to win and many of the people in the field this year are already bonafide stars.
Yes, I know the prize money is good but do the medallists also get bonuses from their home countries or perhaps lifetime salaries from the Police, Armed Forces, etc.?
Or am I totally overestimating the type of appearance fee a 2:21 African would get in say New York or Berlin.
Here is the prize money for Worlds if it's the same as 2015.
Gold: USD $60,000
Silver: USD $30,000
Bronze: USD $20,000
Fourth place: USD $15,000
Fifth place: USD $10,000
Sixth place: USD $6000
Seventh place: USD $5000
Eighth place: USD $4000