When Sydney Marathon joined the World Marathon Majors as the seventh race in the series last year, the running community did what it does best — panicked slightly and flooded the internet with questions. What happens to the Six Star? Is it being replaced? Will there be a Seven Star? An Eight Star? A medal for every number until we run out of shapes to put on it?
Abbott World Marathon Majors has finally addressed the chaos, and the short version is: breathe. The Six Star medal stays. No Seven, no Eight. And yes, a Nine Star medal is coming — eventually.
The Six Star Isn’t Going Anywhere
More than 23,000 runners have earned the Six Star medal since it was introduced in 2016, awarded to anyone who completes all six original Majors: Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York. Over 5,000 runners claimed it in 2025 alone. Another 10,000-plus are sitting on five stars right now, one race away.
That medal — and what it represents — isn’t being watered down or retired. Completing the original six will always earn you the Six Star. Full stop.
There will be no Seven Star or Eight Star medal. The series is skipping straight to nine. When nine official Majors exist, a Nine Star medal gets introduced alongside the Six Star. Not instead of it. Two milestones, two medals. The organization was unusually clear about this, which, given how much runner anxiety was swirling around, was probably a smart move.
So How Do We Get to Nine?
Sydney’s arrival in 2025 brought the total to seven Majors. Getting to nine means two more candidate races need to cross the finish line — the Cape Town Marathon and the Shanghai Marathon.
Cape Town passed its first assessment in 2024 and was on track for its second in 2025. Then the race got cancelled due to severe weather, which pushed everything back a year. It will now get its second assessment in 2026, and if it passes, Cape Town becomes an official Major in 2027.
Shanghai has a similar timeline. It replaced Chengdu as a candidate race in 2024, passed its first assessment in 2025, and faces its second evaluation in 2026. Pass that, and Shanghai joins the club in 2027 as well.
If both races make it through — and that’s still an if — the earliest runners could claim a Nine Star medal is 2027.
What Already Counts
Here’s the thing: the clock has technically already started. Anyone who ran the 2025 Sydney Marathon already has a star logged in their AbbottWMM Runner’s Portal, sitting there waiting for the Nine Star medal to officially exist. The 2026 Sydney race will count too.
Cape Town runners get a small asterisk. People lining up for the 2026 race will collect a star — but only if Cape Town is confirmed as a Major in 2027. The decision to award stars early was a nod to the thousands of runners who had already committed to the race expecting it to count. Fair enough.
The 2026 Shanghai Marathon, though? No star yet. Still in the waiting room.
Neither Cape Town nor Shanghai count toward the Six Star medal. They’re strictly Nine Star territory.
Still Chasing Six Stars?
For anyone still working through the original six, nothing has changed.
Run all six Majors in whatever order suits you, over however many years it takes — there’s no time limit and no minimum pace requirement. Log your progress through the Runner’s Portal on the World Marathon Majors website. Before your sixth race, use the “Set For No.6” console on the WMM site to register. At the expo, you’ll pick up a special Six Star finisher bib to wear on your back. Cross the finish line, find the Six Star medal collection point, and collect what you came for.
Simple enough. Getting there is the hard part.
