The Sydney Marathon has received the first of two ticks it requires in its pursuit to become the seventh major marathon of the world, alongside the famous events held in London, Berlin, Tokyo, Boston, Chicago and New York City.
Two months after key figures from the six major marathons touched down in Sydney as guests of the 2023 edition of Australia’s premier marathon, the event has advanced to the second stage of the candidacy process as it aims to become the seventh major in 2025.
The Sydney Marathon is faced with meeting a 104-point criteria two years in a row, with participant numbers, course activity, the course itself and crowd support among the areas of assessment.
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The Sydney Marathon’s first pass mark follows the glowing remarks of the London Marathon and New York City Marathon race directors on the day of this year’s event in interviews with Wide World of Sports.
London Marathon boss Hugh Brasher described the event as “epic” and said it was “on the road to being a major”, while New York City Marathon race director Ted Metellus backed up his counterpart’s promising words.
“Similarly to the athletes that are participating to get their six stars [awarded to those who complete all six majors], Sydney is on its way to get its star,” Metellus told Wide World of Sports.
The Sydney Marathon was launched as a legacy project of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
The iconic Sydney event, owned by Athletics Australia and headed up by race director Wayne Larden, is vying to become the first race added to the World Marathon Majors series since the Tokyo Marathon in 2013.
“Our 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,” said World Marathon Majors chief executive Dawna Stone.
“The 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 their candidacy.”
The Cape Town Marathon and Chengdu Marathon are also pushing to become majors, but both events are yet to receive their first pass mark.