Entries for next year’s Dublin Marathon will be decided on a lottery system instead of the traditional first-come, first-served online process.

Following Sunday’s 40th race and a record 22,500 entries, race director Jim Aughney confirmed the changes in light of the growing demand for places at the event.

An extra 2,500 places were added this year but that still fell well short of satisfying the demand.

“Many races that have more interested runners than they can accommodate have moved to a lottery registration system in recent years,” said Mr Aughney.

“Demand for the Dublin Marathon has never been greater, and we believe the lottery is the fairest system to offer all runners the same opportunity to participate.”

There will be a registration fee of €15 that will be fully refundable for those who are not chosen, with the lottery open from November 1 to November 30.

Successful applicants will be notified in January and the fee will be offset against the overall cost of €90.

Some long-time participants of the race expressed anger on social media that they could miss out but Mr Aughney said there will be spaces made available for such runners.

“We recognise the loyalty of runners to the event and this will be factored into the lottery systems allocation process. This will ensure that the race reflects the make-up of runners lining up of previous years, from national to international, new to loyal runners.”

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