London Marathon Events Launches London Classics

London Marathon Events has launched the London Classics, a new challenge that will see participants take on the Virgin Money London Marathon, cycle 100 miles in the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 and swim two miles at Swim Serpentine, the open water swimming festival.

The first chance for people to complete the London Classics comes at this year’s Swim Serpentine on 16th September with the introduction of the new London Classics two-mile swim. Anyone who has completed the London Marathon since 1981 and cycled the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 since its inception in 2013 is eligible to enter.

Everyone who completes the trio will receive a specially designed London Classics medal and will be listed in the London Classics Hall of Fame.

The medal is engraved with the words: Et ego Londinium vici, meaning ‘I too have conquered London’.

Hugh Brasher, London Marathon events director, said: “We have brought together the best marathon in the world, the world’s greatest cycling festival and our inspirational open water swimming event, Swim Serpentine, to create the London Classics. This will become one of the world’s great sporting challenges. Over the years, the London Marathon has inspired hundreds of thousands to take up running and we hope the London Classics will inspire tens of thousands to try a new sport.

“If you have already completed the London Marathon and the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100, you can enter this September’s two mile London Classics wave at Swim Serpentine and your name will become part of sporting history.”

One of the first people aiming to complete the London Classics is double Olympic gold medal-winning rower Heather Stanning OBE, who ran this year’s Virgin Money London Marathon and takes on the Prudential RideLondon-Surrey 100 later this month. She then aims to achieve the sporting triple by completing the Swim Serpentine two-mile swim in September.

Stanning said: “It is a fantastic opportunity to be one of the first to complete this unique sporting triple. It is such a great idea from the London Marathon Events team and a challenge I’m sure lots of people will want to take on.”