Peres Jepchirchir Wins the Sydney Marathon for Her Fourth Different Major Title

Peres Jepchirchir won the Sydney Marathon on Sunday in 2:18:31, her first race since a stress fracture ended her spring and her fourth victory at a different World Marathon Major.

Jepchirchir beat her compatriot Irine Cheptai by 3:40, according to the official results published by MultiSport Australia. Shure Demise of Ethiopia was third in 2:22:33, and Haven Hailu, also of Ethiopia, was fourth, 4:25 behind the winner. The elite races left Miller Street in North Sydney at 6:30 a.m. local time and finished at the Opera House, with 22 women and 30 men on the start line.

Cheptai, whose personal best is 2:17:51, finished 4:20 outside it. Demise, who won the Paris Marathon in April and has run 2:18:34, was 3:59 outside hers. Hailu won in Seoul in March.

The winning time was nine seconds outside Sifan Hassan’s course record of 2:18:22, set last year in the race’s first running as a major, and it is the second-fastest women’s marathon ever run in Sydney. Hassan had taken 3:18 off the previous course best, Workenesh Edesa’s 2:21:40 from 2024, so the course record Jepchirchir chased on Sunday was only a year old.

Sydney’s course is not eligible for world records. World Athletics permits a net decrease of no more than 1 meter per kilometer, roughly 42 meters over a marathon, and the route drops 83 meters from Miller Street to the Opera House. That descent does not make it quick. Its 313 meters of climbing come on the Harbour Bridge in the opening kilometers and again in the eastern suburbs late in the race.

Jepchirchir had not raced a marathon since Dec. 7, when she ran 2:14:43 in Valencia, a personal best, finishing 43 seconds behind Joyciline Jepkosgei’s course record of 2:14:00. She was diagnosed with a stress fracture afterward and withdrew from the London Marathon in April. “It is with great sadness that I have withdrawn from the TCS London Marathon,” she said in a statement at the time. “After racing in Valencia, I was diagnosed with a stress fracture and I was only able to resume training in late January.”

Sunday’s win gives her titles at four of the seven majors: New York in 2021, Boston in 2022, London in 2024 and now Sydney. She is also the Olympic champion, from Tokyo in 2021, and the reigning world champion, having won a sprint finish against Tigst Assefa in Tokyo last September.

In the men’s race, Addisu Gobena of Ethiopia won in 2:04:42, cutting 1:24 off Hailemaryam Kiros’s course record from last year. Gobena was the runner-up in Sydney in 2025 in 2:06:16. Chimdessa Debele Gudeta made it an Ethiopian one-two in 2:04:46, and Tebello Ramakongoana of Lesotho was third in 2:04:57. Alphonce Simbu, the world champion, and Sisay Lemma, the fastest man in the field on entry times, were outside the top three. Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s wheelchair race in 1:26:50 and Manuela Schär the women’s in 1:42:04.

Chicago, Berlin and Tokyo are the three majors Jepchirchir has not won. Berlin is on Sept. 27.

Sydney Marathon Women’s Top 20 Finishers