The Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS could be the newest addition to the Abbott World Marathon Majors in 2025.
It was recently announced that the Sydney Marathon has passed the first stage of assessment and has moved forward to the second stage of the candidacy process to becoming a renowned Abbott World Marathon Major.
In order to become a World Marathon Major, the Sydney Marathon will be assessed over a three-year period, where it must meet strict criteria.
If successful, the Sydney Marathon will become the seventh Abbott World Marathon Majors and join an elite group of races – Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, TCS London Marathon, BMW-Berlin Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and TCS New York City Marathon.
The Tokyo Marathon was the most recent race to earn the status of Abbott World Marathon Majors back in 2013.
Abbott World Marathon Majors CEO Dawna Stone spoke on the assessment of the Sydney Marathon.
โOur assessment team found that the 2023 Sydney Marathon has made significant improvements in a number of areas where we required it to raise standards following its 2022 event.โ
โThe team was impressed with the efforts made to meet the criteria set out in the assessment process, and we now look forward to returning in 2024 for the next stage of candidacy.โ
Additionally, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in South Africa was assessed this year, its second assessment year. The race was found to have taken significant steps towards meeting the assessment criteria but has yet to achieve a pass.
The Chengdu Marathon in China was the third event assessed this year, and it is also its second assessment year. The event will continue to make improvements as it seeks to achieve its first pass.
Alongside meeting this yearโs assessment criteria, the Sydney Marathon will also be hosting the 2024 Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships.
The event will take place on September 15, 2024, and is one of the biggest road-running championships on the calendar. The championship race will be for qualified athletes aged 40 and over, competing across nine age groups.
This will be the first time the Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships will be hosted by an event outside of the official six major marathons.
With the Sydney Marathon moving on to the next stage of candidacy, many runners have been asking what will happen to the Six Star Finisher program.
The Abbott World Marathon Majors has confirmed that regardless of future assessment outcomes, the Six Star Finisher program will remain unaffected. Rather, new awards programs will be added for athletes who finish more than the current six majors.
Stone added, โWe have been listening to our community and fully appreciate the huge appeal of the Six Star Medal. We are also aware of the tens of thousands of runners on their Six Star journey whose strong desire is for this goal to stay in place.โ
Whilst the Sydney Marathon has already met many of the assessment criteria, race organizers say that the event will undergo continuous enhancements to ensure it becomes on of the worldโs premier running events.