Japan's Jo Fukuda has claimed his fourth Wings for Life World Run global men's title, covering 78.9km before the Catcher Car finally swept him up on a course routed out of Fukuoka. The 13th edition of the global charity run, contested on Sunday 10 May at a single synchronised 11:00 UTC start, drew an official 346,500 participants across 195 countries and raised a record €9.2 million for spinal cord injury research.
Fukuda, whose previous wins came in the regional App Run format, dictated the men's race from inside the first hour and was always inside the Catcher Car's projected radius. Poland's Dariusz Noźyński held second on 67.96km, with Austria's Andreas Vojta third on 67.32km. The lead group spent the closing 20 minutes in single file as pacing was reduced to a survival exercise once the Catcher Car began moving at full marathon pace inside the final hour.
The women's race delivered the headline performance of the day. Mikky Keetels, racing out of Breda in the Netherlands, ran a controlled 62.2km that not only secured the global title but also reset the Wings for Life women's world record. Germany filled the remaining podium spots, with Esther Pfeiffer reaching 60.33km and Imke Salander 52.51km — a tier of performances that pulled the women's leaderboard closer to the men's deeper than the format has previously seen.
Vienna's Heldenplatz Flagship Run, the original anchor course of the event, drew its largest crowd in three years, while App Run participation broke fresh ground across South-East Asia and Latin America. Wings for Life confirmed that the €9.2 million figure, generated through entry fees and matched donations, exceeded the 2025 record by close to a million euros and brings cumulative fundraising over the event's history past €65 million.
Organisers had warned during race week that the 310,719-participant record from 2025 could fall, and the figure of 346,500 cleared it by some margin. With Fukuda confirmed for a title defence and Keetels' world record likely to invite a 2027 challenge from the front of the women's marathon field, the 14th edition — pencilled in for the second Sunday of May 2027 — already has the storylines it needs.