Addisu Gobena Wins the Sydney Marathon by Four Seconds and Breaks the Course Record

Addisu Gobena won the Sydney Marathon on Sunday in 2:04:42, taking 84 seconds off a course record set only a year ago and holding off two men who also finished inside the old mark.

Chimdessa Debele, also of Ethiopia, was second in 2:04:46. Tebello Ramakongoana of Lesotho was third in 2:04:57. The record they all beat, 2:06:06, belonged to Hailemaryam Kiros, who ran it in 2025 in Sydney’s first year as a World Marathon Major, and who was still in the lead group with two kilometers to run.

Sydney entered the Majors with a reputation for difficulty, built on a point-to-point route that starts in North Sydney, crosses the Harbour Bridge and climbs Oxford Street before turning for the Opera House. It also entered with the slowest men’s course record of the seven Majors. Sunday’s race settled the second of those. Gobena’s winning time is even quicker than the New York City Marathon course record of 2:04:58, set by Tamirat Tola in 2023.

Ten Men at 20K, Seven at 40K

The lead group went out fast, as our live coverage tracked from the first mats. Ten men reached 20K in 59:15, which is 2:03 marathon pace, and the halfway split of 1:02:28 was still worth 2:04:58. The pace then came back toward something sustainable. Ramakongoana pressed at 27K and took Vincent Ngetich with him. Gobena answered with a surge of his own and was reeled in. Sisay Lemma, who holds the fastest personal best in the field at 2:01:48 and won Boston in 2024, lost contact before 30K, and the leaders had slipped to 2:08 pace by the time they reached 35K in 1:44:07.

Seven men crossed 40K together in 1:58:38, among them Gobena, Debele, Ramakongoana, Ngetich, Kiros and the reigning world champion, Alphonce Simbu. Fifteen seconds covered the podium at the finish.

Gobena is 21, and he had been in this position before. He finished second here in 2025, beaten by Kiros over the closing kilometer in 2:06:16. His personal best going into Sunday was 2:05:01, run on his marathon debut in Dubai in January 2024, when he was 19. He also owns a 59:17 half-marathon, run at Houston in 2025, and he started the race ranked no. 30 in the world by World Athletics. Sydney is his first Major victory and his first personal best in 31 months.

Ramakongoana finished third here in 2025 as well, in 2:06:47, and improved on that by 1:50 without moving up a place. He ran 2:04:18 at Boston in April, a time World Athletics carries with a note that it is not record-legal, because the Boston course does not meet the criteria. His 2:04:57 in Sydney is the fastest he has run on an eligible one. Debele’s 2:04:46 was two seconds outside his own personal best from December 2024.

Australia’s All-Comers Record Moves Again

The all-comers record stood at 2:07:50 when Yuta Shitara ran it on the Gold Coast in 2019. Sydney has taken it three times since, at 2:07:03 in 2022, 2:06:18 in 2024 and 2:06:06 in 2025, each time by a margin under a minute. Sunday’s race moved it by more than those three combined, and nobody has now run a quicker marathon anywhere in the country than Gobena’s 2:04:42.

The weather cooperated. The elite field started from Miller Street in North Sydney at 6:30 a.m. under a clear sky at 57 F, with a light northwesterly wind and humidity at 74 percent.

Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in 2:18:31, nine seconds outside the course record Sifan Hassan set in 2025. Priscah Cherono, who is 46, led the women past 25K before Jepchirchir and Irine Cheptai went by her, and Jepchirchir moved clear at 35K.

Athletics Australia, which ratified the last all-comers record, had not published confirmation of the new one on Sunday morning.

Sydney Marathon Men’s Top 20 Finishers