Sydney is Australia's only Abbott World Marathon Major. Since its 2025 debut it has been the seventh and newest in the global series, alongside Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York and Tokyo, and that status changed the race overnight. The 2026 ballot drew more than 123,000 applications for roughly 40,000 places, an acceptance rate close to one in three.
The course is a point-to-point from North Sydney to the Opera House, and it is tougher than its "net downhill" billing suggests. It drops hard onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge early, climbs Oxford Street to a high point near the 13km mark, rolls through Centennial Park, then saves a genuinely cruel rise around Mrs Macquaries Chair at 38 to 40km before the final descent to the finish. The net is slightly downhill, about 83 metres, but you still climb more than 300 metres along the way.
It is quick at the front. On debut as a Major, Hailemaryam Kiros ran 2:06:06, the fastest marathon ever recorded in Australia, and Sifan Hassan became the first woman under 2:20 on Australian soil with 2:18:22. Eliud Kipchoge was in the field.
Entry is by ballot, drawn the previous spring (the 2026 ballot ran from late September 2025), with charity places and travel packages as a backup if you miss out. The fee is around $280 for Australian and New Zealand entrants. The 5km runs on the Saturday, the marathon and 10km on the Sunday (29 and 30 August in 2026). The North Sydney start is easiest reached by early train or rideshare; the Opera House finish needs no directions.
