First Zambian to Complete All Big Six Marathons ‘Humbled’

Maya Mwanawasa became the first Zambian to run all of the 'big six’ marathons after completing the Boston marathon on Monday.

The World Marathon Majors are held in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York.

"I started my journey to complete the world marathon majors in 2018 at the Berlin Marathon,” Mwanawasa said in an interview yesterday. “Three weeks after that …I did [the] Chicago Marathon.

“In 2019, I did the London Marathon as well as the TCS New York Marathon, I was supposed to have done Tokyo Marathon in 2020, but COVID-19 happened, so that was done last year in 2023. The final major came [on Monday] at the Boston Marathon and I was the first Zambian to have completed all the six World Marathon Majors.”

It took Mwanawasa six years to complete the six marathons.

“I can’t find the perfect words to describe the feeling of becoming a six-star finisher and being the first Zambian. It’s as if I was carrying the whole of Zambia on my shoulders. It’s been more humbling than anything else,” she said.