Ho Chi Minh City Marathon 2026 draws 11,000 runners as international field surges

HO CHI MINH CITY — Nearly 11,000 runners competed in the 2026 Ho Chi Minh City Marathon, an event marked by a significant surge in international participation.

The race saw an 8% increase in foreign athletes compared to last year. Nearly 2,800 runners from 75 countries and territories took part, representing 26% of the total field.

In the men’s division, Huynh Anh Khoi took first place with a time of 2 hours, 25 minutes, and 44 seconds. Cambodian runner Vann Pheara finished in second place.

Pham Thi Hong Le won the women’s marathon, crossing the finish line at 2 hours, 46 minutes, and 18 seconds.

The course started and ended in the city center, taking participants past several of the city’s historical landmarks. Top Vietnamese athletes, including Nguyen Trung Cuong, were among the elite competitors.

The marathon is a key fixture in the city’s annual New Year celebration festivities.

The expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City Marathon, marked by a significant surge in international participation, underscores two pivotal shifts in Vietnam’s socioeconomic landscape. First, the event serves as a barometer for the maturation of the country’s urban middle class. This demographic is increasingly pivoting toward health-conscious lifestyles and international-standard recreational activities, transforming the marathon from a niche professional pursuit into a definitive status symbol for a new generation of professionals.

Second, the event functions as a calculated exercise in metropolitan branding. By routing thousands of runners—many of them high-spending foreign nationals—past iconic landmarks, municipal authorities are leveraging "soft power" to project an image of a dynamic and globally integrated Ho Chi Minh City. This strategy is clearly aimed at positioning the city as a regional sports-tourism hub, directly challenging the established dominance of competitors like Bangkok and Singapore.

However, a performance gap persists. Despite the high level of engagement, winning times still trail significantly behind those of major global circuits. This discrepancy suggests that the event’s current value proposition remains rooted in grassroots mobilization and tourism development rather than its status as a premier destination for elite international athletics.

For many Vietnamese-Americans, particularly the sports-minded younger generation, events like these offer a fresh incentive to return to the homeland. Moving beyond traditional family visits or the typical business ties involving remittances and the nail salon industry, they are now embracing "destination marathons." These events allow them to blend travel with athletic pursuits, offering a way to reconnect with their roots through a modern lens that transcends the usual narratives of F2B or EB-5 visa-driven trips. Whether they are coming from Little Saigon or elsewhere across the States, this new wave of travelers is finding a way to experience Vietnam that feels both personal and contemporary.