All 17,000 tickets for next year’s Rotterdam marathon were sold out within 2.5 hours, the organisers of the 44th edition of the race say.

In total, 35,000 had expressed an interest in taking part in the race, which is scheduled for April 13. Last year it took a week for all the tickets to be snapped up.

Marathon director Wilbert Lek is now in talks with the city council to see if more runners can join the field. The organisers hope eventually to expand to 30,000.

The Amsterdam marathon had 20,000 runners covering the full distance last year, a record for the city.