London, May 9 (IANS): A record number of 386,050 applicants from around the world had registered for a ballot place in the 2018 London Marathon when the application system closed on Friday, organisers said here on Tuesday.

This is the highest number of applicants for any marathon in the world, reports Xinhua news agency.

A total of 327,516 of those applicants were from the UK, 73,586 up from the previous UK applicant record of 253,930 for the 2017 event -- an increase of nearly 29 per cent. A total of 58,534 people applied in the overseas ballot.

Just over 58 per cent of the UK applications for 2018 were from people who have never run a marathon and more than 45 percent of the total UK applicants were women (also a new record).

"These record-breaking numbers reflect the huge success of the 37th London Marathon on April 23," said Hugh Brasher, the Event Director for the London Marathon Events. 

"One of our goals is to inspire people to take up sport and it's fantastic that more than 191,000 people from the UK have been inspired to apply to run a marathon for the first time in 2018," he added.

In 1981, less than 300 of the 6,300 finishers were women. More than 149,000 women from the UK have applied to run next year and, in another first, there were more female than male first time marathon runners from the UK who applied this year.