Sydney Marathon Is The Seventh World Marathon Major!

The TCS Sydney Marathon has been announced as an Abbott World Marathon Major from 2025.

Sydney joins the marathons in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York as the seventh major. The next Sydney Marathon, which takes place on Sunday 31 August 2025, will be its first running as a major.

Tokyo was the last marathon elevated to the majors, which happened in 2013, and since 2016 there has been a special Six Star medal for runners who complete all the majors. With the introduction of a new race there’s now a new major medal for us to run towards: the Nine Star medal.

SIX STARS TO NINE STARS

The Six Star medal remains for all runners on their journey to complete the original six Abbott World Marathon Major races, and we understand that the Six Star medal is going to just be for the current six majors, so running Sydney is not part of the Six Star medal.

When the Nine Star medal becomes available, the Six Star medal will also stay. The earliest the Nine Star will be available is 2027, but runners will collect their star from Sydney from the 2025 race.

Runners who completed the 2024 Sydney Marathon cannot collect a star from that race, with the exception of the Wanda Age Group World Championship runners who are the first to get their Sydney star.

There is no time limit on completing the Six Star and Nine Star journeys.

SELECTING THE SEVENTH MAJOR

The process of selecting the new Abbott World Marathon Majors has progressed since 2022 when Sydney, Cape Town and Chengdu Marathons were announced as candidate races. Each race has to pass two assessments before it joins the major series.

The races are assessed on a large criteria of over 100 points, including broader categories like: race participation (and an increase in the number of finishers), the quality of the elite fields, race organisation, runner experience, sustainability, and legacy.

The Sydney Marathon passed its first assessment in 2023 and then passed again in 2024. The 2024 Cape Town Marathon was assessed but the results have not yet been announced (it is on its first assessment), while the Shanghai Marathon has replaced the Chengdu Marathon as China’s candidate race. It will have its first assessment at the 2024 Shanghai Marathon on Sunday 1 December.  

Cape Town and Shanghai could join the series as early as 2026 and 2027 respectively if they pass their assessments. When there are nine majors we’ll get a Nine Star medal.

SYDNEY’S PROGRESS

The Sydney Marathon began in 2001 as a legacy to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and for the first few years it followed the same route as the Olympic Marathon before the course changed to make it a little flatter and faster, with further route changes coming as the race has grown.

The race will be the hilliest and most challenging Major marathon, but will have iconic sights and experiences for runners, including running over the Sydney Harbour Bridge at the beginning of the race, and finishing right in front of the Sydney Opera House.

The Sydney Marathon has grown quickly: There were 1,200 finishers in 2001, and still only 5,300 in 2022, but that jumped to almost 17,000 in 2023, and around 25,000 places sold out for 2024’s race, with runners from 100 countries taking part. There’s an expectation that the race will grow to around 35,000 in 2025.

From 2025, the race is moving forward by two weeks, so the Major Marathon race calendar looks like:

• Tokyo Marathon: Sunday 2 March 2025
• Boston Marathon: Monday 21 April 2025
• London Marathon: Sunday 27 April 2025
• Sydney Marathon: Sunday 31 August 2025
• Berlin Marathon: Sunday 21 September 2025
• Chicago Marathon: Sunday 12 October 2025
• New York City Marathon: Sunday 2 November 2025

HOW CAN YOU RUN THE 2025 SYDNEY MARATHON?

Most places for the 2025 Sydney Marathon will be drawn by ballot. There will be two ballots for the next three Sydney Marathons (2025, 2026 and 2027). All information on running in 2025 is available here.

The Candidacy Club is for every runner who took part in the Sydney Marathon during the race’s candidate years – 2022, 2023 and/or 2024. If you ran any of those races then you get a guaranteed place at the Sydney Marathon for one of the next three events. Runners can choose their preferred year and if the places are over subscribed they will go to a ballot, and if they are not drawn they will automatically move to their second choice.

All other runners can apply by a general ballot. Details will be announced in December 2024. The price for a ballot entry (Candidacy and general) is $250AUD (£130 / $160USD).

Runners can also sign up via sports tours. Check with individual tour operators to see if they have availability.

You can read more about the Abbott World Marathon Majors here. And here’s how you can run all the Majors.