Sports Technology

The 36th Medibank Melbourne Marathon has broken the Australian participant's record with the greatest number of entrants to date, making it the largest marathon in Australian history.

Held on 13th October, just over 34,000 people registered for the five events with 6,850 people completing the marathon.

At the front of the event, Lisa Weightman and Dominic Ondoro both broke the female and male marathon race records. This, along with the record number of participants, further raised the profile of the Melbourne Marathon both in Australia and overseas.

Behind the scenes, the Melbourne Marathon not only used EventDesq to register the 34,000 participants, but also used ShopDesq for merchandise sales.

In order to encourage participation, it was determined that the marathon website needed to be transformed into an interactive platform where registration was as easy as possible. To this end, the Melbourne Marathon upgraded their website to SiteDesq Pro.

Upgrades to the event registration system enabled participants to register as a team, resulting in a much more streamlined process, where entrants didn't have to register and pay separately.

Melbourne Marathon Director Greg Hooten says "to put an event on the size of the Medibank Melbourne marathon is an enormous task, which relies heavily on a range of contractors and partners.

"One of the crucial partnerships any mass participation event has is with their registration system provider. Hence our relationship with IMG STG and the skills and system they bring to the event are crucial to ensure we have seamless registration system that minimises both the front end process by the runner and the backend information and support the event receives.

"The event has grown every year over the last six years and that growth has grown hand in hand with IMG STG."

For further information contact IMG STG (IMG Sports Technology Group) on 03 9426 2600.