2026 Sydney Marathon By the Numbers

The Sydney Marathon returned last weekend for its second year as an official part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.

Competition among the elite men continued to grow. The winner set another course record with other men close on his heels. The women’s race wasn’t as tight and the winner didn’t set a new course record, but she still posted a competitive time for a Major with a hilly course.

The larger story, though, is whether and how the race has continued to change now that it is a Major. Just a few years ago, this race was a fraction of the size it is today. As it pursued entry into the Majors, it grew and attracted a more international audience.

Has that trend continued? Let’s dive in to the data and consider a few questions:

1. How much has the field grown over the past few years?
2. How the gender distribution of runners changed?
3. Are runners trending older or younger?
4. Where are the runners from?
5. Did Masters runners set any new course records?
6. Were runners as a whole faster or slower than last year?
7. Will this have any meaningful impact on the Boston Marathon Cutoff?

Let’s get to it.

How Has the Field Changed?

Let’s start with the simple questions. How much has the field grown and how has the gender distribution of that field changed in the last few years?

Before Sydney was a candidate race for the Majors, it was much smaller. The 2023 race had only about 13,000 finishers. It jumped in size dramatically each of the next two years.

In its first year as a Major last year, it had 32,767 finishers. This year, there were 36,163 – a 10.4% increase. This ranks firmly above Boston and Tokyo in terms of size. But unless it continues to grow at a rapid pace the next few years, its nowhere near the next largest race (Berlin).

As it has grown, the field has also included relatively more women. Back in 2023, less than 30% of the finishers were women.

The chart above shows the raw counts of men and women in each of the last four years. You can see just how much smaller the women’s bars are. But they’ve grown relatively more quickly than the men’s.

From last year to this year, there were 2,000 additional women. The men’s side of the field – which was also much larger – only grew by 1,000.

You can see the impact of this in the chart above, which shows the field broken out as a percent. The share of the field made up by women has grown each year. This year, it reached 37.91%.

Two years ago, Sydney had relatively fewer women than any of the Majors, other than Tokyo. This year, it moved past Berlin, where about 35% of the field is typically comprised of women. But it’s still behind London and Boston, where the mark is closer to 43-44%.

Has the Age of the Runners Changed?

The visual below shows the age breakdown of the finishers, broken out into men and women, over the last four years. In both cases, the trend has been towards older runners, although that slightly rebounded this year.

Focusing first on the women’s half of the chart, there’s a big shift from 2024-25 – the first year the race was a Major. The share of runners in their 20’s dropped significantly. And just about every age group from 35-39 on up saw an increase.

This year that rebounded a bit. Younger runners – from 25 to 39 – made up a slightly larger share of the field and Masters runners made up a slightly smaller share.

On the men’s side, there’s a two year shift from 2023 to 2025 from younger runners to older runners. Back in 2023, about 50% of finishers were under 35. By 2025, that had dropped to about 32-33%. This matched large increases among runners in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s.

Like the women, this rebounded slightly this year. The share of men 25-39 increased a few percentage points. And the share of older men shrunk slightly.

So when Sydney became a Major, the field got much older. But this year, that trend moderated a bit and both men and women trended slightly younger this year. Although there was little difference for runners in their early 20’s, which is likely related to the cost of traveling to participate in a race like this.

Where Are the Runners From?

One of the impacts of the Majors, especially in recent years, is that participation in the program attracts an international audience. The share of Japanese runners at Tokyo has been on the decline over the last decade and German runners make up a distinct minority of Berlin finishers.

How has this trend played out at Sydney?

Australian runners are still the single largest group. And when you look at the top ten countries, they’ve hardly changed in the last five years.

Australia and the United States still rank #1 and #2. Japan was #3 back in 2023, but it has since dropped out of the top ten. And Great Britain moved up from #5 in 2023 to #3 for the past three years. The rest of the top ten has been pretty consistent.

The chart above shows the actual count of runners from each of the top five countries. All remaining runners are grouped into the grey “Other” category.

The number of Australian runners has increased slightly, although it decreased ever so slightly from 2025-26. But the number of American, British, Indonesian, and Filipino runners has increased year over year. The large “Other” category also saw a huge increase from 2024-25 and another smaller increase from 2025-26.

This graph normalizes the data and shows it as a percent. And here you can see the dramatic decline among Australian runners. There are still over 10,000 Australian finishers at the race – but they now make up less than 40% of the field.

The share of American runners has been growing each year, now reaching over 12%. British runners are the only other group above 5%.

So at Sydney, too, the field has become increasingly international. One of the benefits of being a Major is that you attract runners from around the world. But that also means that local runners are going to have a harder and harder time securing a spot over time.

How Fast Were the Regular Runners?

At the front of the race, Addisu Gobena set a new course record (2:04:42) and runner-up Chimdessa Debele finished just four seconds behind. Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in 2:18:31, just a few seconds shy of Siffan Hasan’s course record from last year (2:18:22).

But were regular runners significantly faster this year? Or no?

When you look at the Masters categories, there weren’t many outstanding results. I don’t have all of the historical results, and the course changed recently, so I looked back through 2023 to find the fastest time for each age group from 40-44 and up. None of those times were from 2023.

Three age groups saw faster times this year:

• Priscah Cherono of Kenya won the women’s 45-49 age group in 2:23:49. Lisa Weightman had the previous best time from last year (2:29:34).
• Jacqueline Kellerman of Australia won the women’s 50-54 age group in 2:54:19. That improved on Dilfuza Allayarova’s time from 2024 (2:55:53).
• Jennifer Kellett of Australia won the women’s 70-74 age group in 3:41:51. This bested Grace Wasielewski’s time from 2024 (3:43:58).

Three other age groups still have best times from 2025 (Men 40-44, Women 40-44, and Women 75-79). The remaining best times were all marked in 2024, which presumably attracted a higher caliber of Masters competition as it was also the Age Group World Championship.

As for the rest of the field, the visual below shows the distribution of finish times, in two minute buckets, for runners under 40 in each of the past two years. The dropdown menu flips between men and women.

While there’s not a huge difference, finish times were slightly slower this year.

Looking at the women’s graph, last year saw a larger share of women finish around the BQ (3:20-3:25), around 3:45 to 3:50, and at 4:00. This year, there were relatively more women at some points along the long right tail – especially 4:50 to 5:00.

Among the men, too, last year had some faster runners – especially through the low 3:00’s. Last year saw a huge spike at 3:30, much higher than this year. And that was offset by a relatively larger share of runners out on the long, slower tail to the right this year.

The weather was more humid this year than last. So that may have caused issues for some. But the weather wasn’t terrible, and it’s also possible that as the race gets more popular, it attracts a more casual crowd which produces slower average finish times.

Will This Impact the Boston Cutoff Time?

I do not usually include the results from the Sydney Marathon in the Boston Marathon Cutoff Time Tracker. That’s because Sydney, like Tokyo, sees a relatively small share of its qualifiers actually apply to run Boston.

That has increased somewhat since Sydney joined the Majors. In 2023, the conversion rate was extremely low (less than 10%). The last two years, it’s been between 15% and 20%. So I may change course next year and decide to include the results in the tracker. We’ll see how many of this year’s qualifiers convert to applicants. But it’s still significantly lower than the American races.

In another nod to the fact that finish times were slower this year than last year, the qualifying rate dropped slightly. It was 8.8% in 2025 and 8.3% in 2026. But due to the growth in the field, there were still more (2,986) BQ’s this year than last year (2,875).

The other complicating factor here is that the 2026 Boston Marathon included two editions of the Sydney Marathon in its qualifying period. The 2024 Sydney Marathon was in mid-September. This race had a significant number of BQ’s (2,314). But that race was also the Age Group World Championships, and presumably many of those BQ’s were duplicated at another race in the qualifying period.

The net result may be that there are slightly fewer applicants from Sydney this year than last year. It’s unlikely to have a huge impact, but it’s one of those x-factors that might nudge things back down a few seconds.

What Was Your Experience At the 2026 Sydney Marathon?

In its second year as a Major, Sydney has continued to grow. Like other Majors, it has also shifted towards a more international audience. And as those international runners, particularly Americans, make up a larger portion of the field the gender disparity is (slowly) shrinking.

Did you run the 2026 Sydney Marathon? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.