TCS Sydney Marathon

Sydney is Australia's only Abbott World Marathon Major, and the 2027 edition is confirmed for Sunday 29 August 2027. Entry is by ballot, which opens at 10:00am AEST on Tuesday 29 September 2026 and closes at 10:00am AEDT on Monday 19 October 2026. The organiser is explicit that it is not first come, first served: every application lodged inside that window has the same chance, so there is nothing to gain by entering on day one.

Since its 2025 debut it has been the seventh and newest race in the global series, alongside Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York and Tokyo, and that status changed the race overnight. Demand has outrun capacity from the start. The 2026 ballot drew more than 123,000 applications for roughly 40,000 places.

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.

What happened in 2026

The 2026 race produced the fastest winning time in the event's history. Addisu Gobena won in 2:04:42, four seconds ahead of Chimdessa Debele Gudeta, with Tebello Ramakongoana and Alphonce Simbu dead-heating for third in 2:04:57. It was the first time the race had gone under 2:05, against winning times of 2:06:06 in 2025 and 2:06:18 in 2024. Peres Jepchirchir was the first woman home in 2:18:31, 29th overall. More than 40,000 marathon and wheelchair athletes started, drawn from over 140 countries. Full top-50 fields for 2024, 2025 and 2026 are in the results tabs on this page.

Race week

The event runs across four days. Until the 2027 event guide is published, the 2026 edition is the best guide to the shape of it. In 2026 The Running Show, which doubles as the expo and the only bib collection point, opened on the Thursday and ran to Saturday. Meet the Stars was free and open to the public at the Opera House Forecourt on the Friday evening. The TCS Sydney Mini Marathon, a 5km, was held on the Saturday. Sunday belonged to the marathon and the elite wheelchair race, both over the full 42.195km. Customs House hosted the free Motion Festival across all four days.

Start line and wave times

The start is at St Leonards Park in North Sydney, with the line itself on Miller Street. Runners are split across three assembly areas, Purple, Green and Orange, plus a separate High Performance and Australian Championships group inside North Sydney Oval. Your bib tells you which one you are in: the colour is the assembly area, the number is the start group and the letter is your chute. These were the 2026 wave times.

Each group is a rolling start, so expect to cross the line 10 to 30 minutes after your advertised time. Arriving early does not get you in: assembly areas do not admit a group before its allotted window.

Cut-offs

In 2026 the course limit was seven hours measured from the closure of the start line at 8:40am, which put the hard finish at 3:40pm. Miss an intermediate cut-off and you are either redirected on a shorter route or picked up by the sweeper bus. Redirected runners can still cross the finish line but are recorded as a DNF.

Getting there, and the bag drop trap

There is no bag drop on event day. Bags must be handed in at The Running Show during expo week, which catches out visitors who plan to check a bag on Sunday morning. Registered participants and volunteers travel free on public transport by showing their bib, with the airport station access fee the one exclusion. Road closures make driving to North Sydney impractical.

On course and at the finish

Drink stations carry water, with electrolyte and GU Energy stations at set points, and medical posts sit roughly every 2.5km alongside roaming bike crews. An Event Alert System flags heat stress conditions with colour-coded signage at the expo, on course and through event comms.

After the Opera House finish there is a 600 metre walk-off before you collect your medal and finisher bag. Baggage reclaim is at the Parade Grounds, about 600 metres on, and the Recovery Village sits in the Royal Botanic Garden with the Participant Reunite zone organised under A to G flags.

Australian Marathon Championships

The national marathon title is decided inside this race. State associations nominate up to three men and three women each, and the fastest Australian man and woman take the championship. Times for the elite, Australian Championships and High Performance groups are taken on gun time; everyone else is scored on chip time from when they cross the start line.

Entry and cost

The 2027 entry fee has not been published yet. The 2026 fee sat around $280 for Australian and New Zealand entrants, with charity places and travel packages as the backup if you miss the ballot. Finishing earns an Abbott World Marathon Majors star, claimable through a runner portal at AbbottWMM.com once results are uploaded.

Accessibility services on event day include accessible drop-off and start line areas, accessible toilets, quiet spaces, a multi-faith prayer area, medical device transport and Can't Wait cards.

The 2027 date and ballot windows were announced by the organiser on 30 August 2026. Race-week logistics above describe the 2026 edition and are drawn from the official TCS Sydney Marathon Event Week Guide; 2027 specifics will be confirmed in that year's guide.