Sydney Marathon 2023 becomes largest marathon ever held in Australia and looks to achieve World Major status

The Sydney Marathon, held yesterday, created history with the event becoming the largest marathon ever held in Australia with more than 42,000 participating and having attracted 17,000 runners to the 42km race.

This year’s event saw more than double the previous record of 8,100 set by the Melbourne Marathon in 2019.

After last year becoming the first marathon in the Southern Hemisphere to achieve Platinum Label status, the Sydney Marathon is now in its second year of a three-year candidacy period to become a major marathon.

The Sydney Marathon is aiming for Inclusion in the Abbott World Marathon Majors. If successful Sydney Marathon will join the pantheon of great marathons of the world, including New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo and Berlin.

Adding to the historic event, this year’s field of elite runners saw the fastest marathon pack ever assembled for an Australian marathon, including 2022 Men’s World Champion, Tamirat Tola; 2023 Boston Marathon Men’s runner up, Gabriel Geay; 2022 Paris Marathon Women’s Champion, Judith Jeptum Korir and Australian men’s and women’s record holders, Brett Robinson and Sinead Diver.

Moroccan Othmane El Goumri, the 31-year-old Tokyo Olympian took out the top spot with a time of 02:08: 20. For the female competitors, the United State's Betsy Saina finished first, with a 02:26:46 time. Australian Madison de Rozario won the wheelchair marathon 13 minutes ahead of the second placed Kina Tsubasa from Japan.

However, with unusually warm weather for early spring - temperatures reaching 32C in parts of Sydney on Sunday afternoon - a number of marathon runners were hospitalised - paramedics treated 40 people, of whom 26 were taken to hospital, seven in a serious condition.

Sydney Marathon is already recognised as one of the world’s best marathons and a bucket list event for recreational marathon runners across the globe, uniting people of all backgrounds to enjoy an unforgettable running experience in one of the great sporting event cities of the world.

Inclusion in the Abbott World Marathon Majors would make it one of the most coveted marathon events on earth as these marathons are generally oversubscribed by running enthusiasts who aim to compete in all World Marathon Majors. In 2019 the Tokyo Marathon received over 330,000 applications for a field of 37,000. In the same year, the London Marathon received over 424,000 applications for a capacity of 56,000 runners.

Achieving World Major status would present an opportunity for the Sydney Marathon to attract the world’s elite runners and global media attention, along with tens of thousands of visitors each year to experience one of the world’s greatest running events, providing a significant boost to the NSW visitor economy.

This year, the Sydney Marathon also enhanced its profile as a spectator event, with the inclusion of four spectator live sites in Pyrmont, The Rocks, Surry Hills, and Moore Park, offering entertainment, free coffee, food trucks, custom sign workshops, DJs, drag queen performances, prize giveaways and large screens broadcasting the marathon live.

The NSW Government through Destination NSW is supporting Sydney Marathon’s push to become a World Marathon Major, which will not only create a world-class community participation event for the people of Sydney but will also have significant tourism benefits for the city.