On Sunday morning on the New York Metropolis Marathon, officers introduced that Australia’s Sydney Marathon has formally turn into the seventh race to hitch the celebrated Abbott World Marathon Majors (WMM), a gaggle that features New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo and Berlin. , this achievement marks a major milestone, as Sydney is now the primary WMM occasion primarily based within the Southern Hemisphere. The choice course of was aggressive, with Sydney rising because the chosen metropolis over two different sturdy candidates: South Africa’s Cape City Marathon and China’s Chengdu Marathon.
We 🩷 this metropolis #SydneyMarathon #MakeSydneyAMajor pic.twitter.com/Avo8bnEOdX
— Sydney Marathon (@sydmarathon) February 15, 2024
Earlier this yr, the Abbott World Marathon Majors introduced a aim to increase the sequence by including a seventh race in 2025, and Sydney, Cape City and Chengdu have been recognized because the main contenders. With this addition, the WMM continues to increase its international attain, providing runners from all over the world a brand new iconic vacation spot marathon.
🚨 BREAKING..
The Sydney Marathon 🇦🇺 is now a World Marathon Main
It’s now going being to be 7 Marathon main marathons beginning in 2025.
The opposite main candidates have been;
✅ Cape City Marathon 🇿🇦
✅ Chendu Marathon 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/Yi8rK4kvs6— Lynne Wachira (@WachiraLynne) November 3, 2024
Including Sydney to the WMM will make it simpler for some runners, particularly those that dwell within the Southern Hemisphere, to pursue the coveted Abbott Six Star Medal for finishing all WMM races. Abbott has confirmed that the Six Star Medal program will stay intact however has urged that new awards may additionally be launched.
Abbott World Marathon Majors look so as to add a seventh marathon
Sydney Marathon’s remaining evaluation befell throughout the 2024 race, which additionally hosted the Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships. Held in September, this yr’s race noticed Morocco’s Othmane El Goumri crossing the end line in two hours, eight minutes and 20 seconds to win his first marathon since 2019 (Dublin); on the ladies’s race, Betsy Saina, a Kenyan-born American marathoner, took the victory with a time of two:26:47.
Greater than 17,000 members ran on this yr’s occasion, which takes in a number of the metropolis’s most well-known landmarks, together with crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge and ending on the Sydney Opera Home. This course has important elevation modifications that add each scenic attraction and a degree of issue much like the New York Metropolis Marathon.