NSW Tourism Minister John Graham urges locals to support mates as Sydney Marathon inches closer to major status

Sydneysiders have been urged to watch their mates at the Sydney Marathon in a bid to make it into a global event like the New York and London races.

Sydneysiders have been urged to come down and support their mates at the Sydney Marathon to help make it into a global event like the New York and London races.

This year will see 25,000 runners set off from a new start line in North Sydney, echoing the start of the 2000 Olympic Marathon, before making their way across the Harbour Bridge and around the city.

One of the thousands of participants is NSW Tourism Minister John Graham who told The Daily Telegraph Sydneysiders would be surprised by the benefits of becoming just the seventh city to host an Abbott World Marathon Major.

“I don’t think Sydney knows how big it will be if we step up to join these six other races,” Mr Graham said.

“(They) have huge numbers of people looking to enter, more than 800,000 for London and more than 300,000 over in Tokyo, it will be a huge boost if Sydney was to reach that level.”

While the overwhelming numbers of entrants saw tickets sell out like never before, and also international registrations jumping 350 per cent from last year, Mr Graham said Sydney will also be “judged on” its supporters.

“We’re calling on people to come down to those (five spectator live sites) … it’s one of those things that we will be judged on when it comes to whether the race is successful,” he said.

NSW Tourism Minister John Graham. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“But it’s a great place to cheer people along and have a great time to.”

Along with London and Tokyo, the other world major locations include Boston, New York, Berlin and Chicago with runners who have completed each of the races receiving the rare ‘Six Star Finisher’ medal.

As Sydney makes its final push to join those cities, runners with those medals would certainly want to add this marathon to their list.

The feat of becoming a major isn’t just for the name itself, Mr Graham said it would not only boost tourism in the city, but also the economy.

“You’d literally have all these runners descending from around the world wanting to run in Sydney and why wouldn’t you want to do that,” he said.

“They’ll bring their support crews, they’ll fly in for the race, they’ll be here for a little while to get ready, it’s a huge boost if we can make it to that level.”

Tourism Minister John Graham running at Sydney Park. Picture: Tim Hunter.

With two of the most iconic landmarks sitting in close proximity in Sydney Harbour, Mr Graham said “what more could you ask for” as the marathon continues to break records.

“If you live in NSW you know how beautiful this (city) is, but for people to have the first chance to do it, they’ll come in their … tens of thousands,” he said.

Despite his own gruelling weeks of preparation, Mr Graham has noticed the running craze first hand.

“The thing that’s really encouraging as you’re out and about training … there’s a whole lot of people out there too,” he said.

“It feels like a little bit of running fever in Sydney at the moment and why not with this big marathon race set with a record number of entries.”