2026 SYDNEY MARATHON PREVIEW: BOTH REIGNING WORLD CHAMPIONS RACE
Both reigning world marathon champions will race in Australia on Sunday, August 30, in what organizers have called the deepest marathon field ever assembled in the country.
Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania and Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya lead the elite entries for the second edition since the race joined the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Twenty-five men in the field have run under 2:10, 14 under 2:05 and three under 2:03. On the women's side, 20 have run under 2:22 and nine under 2:19.
The men's race
Simbu won the marathon at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, the first world title in any track and field event for a Tanzanian athlete. He has a personal best of 2:02:47 and finished second at the Boston Marathon in both 2025 and 2026.
Sisay Lemma is the fastest man entered on paper at 2:01:48. The Ethiopian has won both Boston and the London Marathon, and his personal best is one of the fastest marathons ever run.
Hailemaryam Kiros defends. The Ethiopian won last year in 2:06:06, which stands as the men's course record, and he returns against a field considerably stronger than the one he beat.
Timothy Kiplagat of Kenya brings a 2:02:55 best and Vincent Ngetich adds a second Kenyan at the front. Tebello Ramakongoana of Lesotho has run 2:04:18. Addisu Gobena of Ethiopia is also entered.
The unknown is Hagos Gebrhiwet, who makes his marathon debut here. The Ethiopian is an Olympic and world medalist on the track over 5,000 and 10,000 meters, and debuts from that background have produced both fast times and blowups.
Australia sends Andy Buchanan, who has run 2:06:22, along with Tim Vincent at 2:09:40, Liam Boudin at 2:10:28 and Tom Do Canto at 2:11:14.
The women's race
Jepchirchir holds the Olympic title from Tokyo and the world title from 2025, and her 2:14:43 makes her the fastest woman entered. She has won Boston, New York and London.
Irine Cheptai of Kenya has run 2:17:51. Vivian Cheruiyot, a four-time Olympic medalist on the track and a former London Marathon champion, adds a runner who has been winning at this level for 15 years.
Stella Chesang of Uganda became the first Ugandan woman to win a World Athletics Platinum Label marathon when she took Osaka. Magdalena Shauri of Tanzania, Ruti Aga and Haven Hailu of Ethiopia complete the top group.
Absent is Sifan Hassan, who won here last year in 2:18:22 and holds the women's course record. She is not on the 2026 elite start list.
Australian entries include Ellie Pashley at 2:26:21 and Caitlin Scott at 2:30:26.
The course
The route runs from North Sydney across the Harbour Bridge and finishes at the Opera House, a profile with more rolling than most Major courses and a net effect that has kept winning times in the 2:06 range rather than the 2:03s the field is capable of. The race has run over some version of that harbour route since its first edition, and the bridge crossing in the opening kilometers is the one feature every edition has kept.
That gap matters this year. A field with three men under 2:03 racing a course that has never seen better than 2:06:06 sets up either a course record by a wide margin or a tactical race decided in the last 10 kilometers.
The wheelchair fields are also strong, with Madison de Rozario of Australia, Manuela Schär of Switzerland, Tatyana McFadden of the United States and David Weir of Britain all entered.
Sydney became the seventh Abbott World Marathon Major in 2025 after a multi-year candidacy period. The field assembled for this edition reads as the organizers' answer to the question of whether it can draw at the level of the other six.
On the evidence of the start list, it can. No Australian marathon has previously fielded three men under 2:03, and no edition of this race has fielded a reigning world champion in either event, let alone both.