Sydney Marathon’s relationship with local runners first caught The Sun-Herald’s attention in 2023, when the event – freshly rebranded from the Blackmores Running Festival – placed a strict two-hour-and-30 minute limit on its half-marathon race, 15 minutes faster than previously advertised.
“In our pursuit of Abbott World Marathon Major status, significant improvements have been made to the marathon route this year,” organisers told those impacted.
Thousands cross the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the 2024 marathon.Credit: Edwina Pickles
Data from the previous year’s race showed 1439 of the 7065 – or one in five – runners who received a finishing time for the half-marathon took more than two hours and 30 minutes.
Half-marathon runners were offered the option to upgrade their registration free of charge to the full marathon, for which the cut-off time was extended to seven hours. This angered community running groups who said it was unsafe to ask people to double their distance and unfair that some runners – particularly first-timers – would be denied finishing the race they were training for.
Two years on, Sydney has joined New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Boston, Chicago and London as an Abbott World Marathon Major. But, as Frances Howe reports today, the pursuit of status has come at a cost for local runners.
Before its major candidacy was announced, the Blackmores Running Festival’s marathon typically attracted a field of 5000, well below the minimum field of 15,000 required to be a world major.
In 2023, after offering free upgrades to half-marathon hopefuls, the marathon had 17,000 starters. Last year, it grew to 25,000.
Jump to 2025, and the TCS Sydney Marathon has attracted more than 79,000 applications for just 35,000 starting line spots.
With the world major status secured, this year’s event has attracted eight times more international applicants than the 2024 race, and Destination NSW estimates the marathon’s new status will add $73 million to the state’s economy over the next three years.
But with 40 per cent of runners in the annual race now coming from abroad, many local runners have missed out.
When the marathon was upgraded in November, operations director Simon Bryan and Premier Chris Minns both confirmed they had plans to guarantee spots for local runners.
Some steps have been taken. Runners who competed in the Sydney Marathon between 2022 and 2024 could nominate one of the next three years to guarantee a spot in the race, and 79 per cent of these 32,000 eligible runners were Australian.
It would also be unreasonable to expect that the Sydney Marathon, now that it has major status, retain its identity as just another fun run on the calendar. Indeed, more than 840,000 people applied to run in last year’s London Marathon, vying in the ballot for 50,000-odd starting spots.
In its pursuit of status, the organisers of the Sydney Marathon should remember it was the participation of local runners who helped them get there. More should be done to ensure locals can join the race going forward.
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