For the first time in the history of the distance, the reigning men's and women's world marathon champions will race on the same morning in Australia. Tanzania's Alphonce Simbu and Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir head the field for Sunday's TCS Sydney Marathon, the event's second running as a full Abbott World Marathon Major and, by any measure that organisers can apply, the strongest elite line-up ever assembled on Australian soil.
Simbu became the first Tanzanian to win a World Athletics title when he took gold in Tokyo last year, and arrives with a personal best of 2:02:47 and consecutive runner-up finishes at Boston in 2025 and 2026. He will not have things his own way. Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma, a former Boston and London champion, is the fastest man in the field at 2:01:48, while Kenya's Timothy Kiplagat brings a 2:02:55 from Tokyo and a Melbourne Marathon course record that suggests he travels well to Australian conditions. Vincent Ngetich, second in Berlin on debut and twice a Tokyo podium finisher, is the most consistent entrant of the lot.
The most closely watched name may belong to a debutant. Hagos Gebrhiwet, the second-fastest 5,000m runner in history and the fourth-fastest man ever over the half marathon at 57:41, steps up to the marathon for the first time in Sydney. Track athletes of his calibre rarely make their debut outside the traditional autumn window, and the coaching world will treat the result as a data point regardless of where he finishes. Defending champion Hailemaryam Kiros also returns, having run 2:06:06 last year, still the fastest marathon by a man on Australian soil.
Jepchirchir leads a women's race that may be deeper still. The Olympic champion has won London, Boston and New York, and her 2:14:43 makes her the fastest woman in the field. Irine Cheptai, a Commonwealth silver medallist over 10,000m who won Hamburg on debut and was third in Chicago, is her most obvious rival, with Tanzania's Magdalena Shauri arriving on the back of a Chicago podium. Vivian Cheruiyot, a multiple world champion and four-time Olympic medallist, adds the weight of a long career after a top-five finish in London this spring.
The numbers behind the headline names explain why organisers are confident. Twenty-five men have run inside 2:10, fourteen inside 2:05 and three inside 2:03; twenty women have broken 2:22 and nine have gone under 2:19. The wheelchair races are similarly stacked, with Manuela Schaer arriving in Sydney with the chance to become the first athlete to win all eight Majors, Madison de Rozario racing at home as a two-time Sydney champion, and David Weir making his debut on the course.