Sydney Marathon Now a Major: What This Means

For those who raced the Sydney Marathon, we woke up to an email blast this morning announcing that Sydney is the newest World Marathon Major. It joins a roster that includes Tokyo, London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and New York, identified by the sponsor Abbott as some of the biggest and most prestigious in the world.

But what does this mean? I’ve been reading the comments sections after the announcement and it feels like people need a bit more of an explainer — and they’re not reading the relevant websites and info pages to get it.

Everything I write below is how I understand the FAQ presented in the World Marathon Majors sub-site, found here: worldmarathonmajors.com/sydney-major, and the Sydney Marathon website. If you want to get it straight from the source, visit those two.

For the General Public

“Wow! A new marathon major in a different part of the world!”

That’s how I imagine the general public who cares about marathons might feel about the announcement. For those of us in the Asia Pacific region, it puts Sydney on the radar as a must-do race and also means there’s another WMM aside from Tokyo within easy travelling distance.

But this also comes with its own drawbacks: all the WMM do not have direct registration and can only be entered through lottery, charity, tour group, or time qualification. It’s going to be harder to register for Sydney moving forward.

One other major change for Sydney is that registration will no longer be transferable, deferrable, or convertible to a lower distance.

For Previous Sydney Marathon Finishers

“One Star down, six to go!”

Not quite.

Those of us who raced in the last three years are members of the Candidacy Club so we get special perks like guaranteed entry, but we still have to race Sydney again for that Star. My finish this year doesn’t count because Sydney wasn’t a WMM yet.

The exception to this are those people who raced Sydney this year as part of the Age Group World Championship; their race counts as a Star.

Candidacy Club members go into our own little lottery for the chance to race in the next three years, so it’s not even guaranteed that I can get in next year. The lottery takes place only when there are more Candidacy Club members wanting to race that year than there are spots. If you don’t win a lottery spot in your top preferred year, you automatically get guaranteed entry into your second preference.

For the Six Stars Chasers

“Does this mean I now have to race seven instead of six?!”

Nah, bro. The Six Stars program will continue to award the Six Star medal and list in a Hall of Fame database those who finish the “original” six (I put that in quotation marks because there was once a time that Tokyo wasn’t a WMM).

For Six Stars finishers, nothing changes and you will still have bragging rights.

However, WMM has revealed a new Nine Stars program, which Sydney will be part of. These nine majors are composed of the original six then Sydney plus two other marathons (Shanghai and Cape Town) once they’ve each passed two consecutive assessments.

Each star has its own commemorative coin which you can put into a customizable medal display; a seven-coin display will be available at next year’s Sydney Marathon. Eventually WMM will also issue a nine-coin display and Nine Star medal.

Why Abbott World Marathon Majors Announced New Races

The original Six Star WMM are composed of three races in the USA, two in Europe, and one in Asia — not quite global is it? Expanding the WMM to Sydney adds a new territory, Oceania. Shanghai and Cape Town joining their ranks would bring the WMM into continental Asia and Africa.

While the Nine Star journey will involve significantly more cost to those chasing it, having more WMM across the continents increase access and chances for entry success for those who just want to put one Star on their trophy wall.

The more cynical may say that it’s all prestige marketing to set up artificial achievements to make money off people. This may be true to some extent, but finishing a marathon in itself is also a sort of artificial benchmark isn’t it? Whether or not you buy in is your decision.

I hope this article helps answer some of the major questions around Sydney Marathon becoming a Major. If you have any other questions, please feel free to leave it in the comments.