SYDNEY, Sept 12 (Askume) – If all goes well, Sunday’s 42-kilometre race on the streets of Sydney will mark the start of Australia’s biggest ever marathon field, with the World Marathon Grand Slam soon to be the seventh in the elite sporting series.
If the Sydney Marathon passes the WMM assessment standards for a second consecutive year, it will join the ranks of major historical events such as New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago for the first time since the Tokyo Marathon in 2013.
“We’re really excited about Sunday,” tournament director Wayne Laden said at a news conference in Sydney on Thursday.
“We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on paper and I think we’ve met all of the parameters. So now we just have to execute on that plan and we’re confident we’ll be compliant.”
Lordan has been the race director since 2005, when 2,300 runners took part in the race, and he has overseen an increase in the number of runners to 25,000 who will test themselves on the newly designed course on Sunday.
“It took me 18 years to get to 5,000 and two years to get to 25,000,” bin Laden told Askume.
“So we have made very rapid progress over the last two years since we entered the campaign because there is huge excitement about Sydney hosting a world-leading competition.”
The size of the venue and the new start point – North Sydney Oval, home to the 2000 Olympic marathon – will make the task somewhat difficult for Lordon and his team, but he is hopeful they can succeed.
“I’m very confident, but it’s a big deal and anything can happen. But I think we’re very prepared,” he said.
“On game day I’ll know exactly how we perform and it all depends on how well we plan and execute it.”
“Famous City”
The World Marathon Majors series began in 2006 and a candidates programme was launched in 2017 with the aim of increasing the total number of races to a maximum of nine.
“It’s the World Marathon Grand Slam and it has the word ‘world’ in it, but we’re not really international, are we?” WMM chief executive Dawna Stone told Askume at the city’s world-famous opera, outside the hospital.
“We looked around the world and said, ‘What are we not already doing and what do we need to do to make this more accessible for individuals who want to go into specific areas.’”
Stone’s evaluation team will arrive in Sydney on Sunday and a decision on giving the competition the green light is expected in October.
“What better place to be than this iconic city that everybody wants to visit,” Stone said.
“If everything goes according to plan, I expect they will be the next big game.”
A good elite line-up is clearly one of the WMM standards, with 2022 world champion Gototome Gebresiles set to compete in Sunday’s women’s event, while last year’s world championship bronze medallist Leul Gebresiles of Ethiopia will compete in the men’s event.
The loudest cheer from the crowd will come from reigning women’s wheelchair champion Madison De Rosario, who returned to Australia on Wednesday after winning silver at the Paris Paralympic Marathon last Sunday.
“I love the marathon, it’s my favorite race,” De Rosario said.
“It’s a pain to do this twice a week, but a lot of us love it, so I’m happy to be here.”
