The Blackmores Sydney Marathon was introduced after the world’s best marathon runners took part in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games marked by a blue-lined course. Runners still follow part of the ‘blue line’ established for the Marathon between Milsons Point and the Sydney Opera House
The Blackmores Sydney Running Festival began in 2001
In 2001 a field of 7,800 runners took part in Blackmores Sydney Running Festival and the participation figures grew to a record high in 2019 of 40,050 (pre-covid)
The event is owned by Athletics Australia and organised by Pont 3
The Blackmores Sydney Marathon is also home to the 2022 Australian Marathon Championships
In 2015-2021 The Blackmores Sydney Marathon was awarded a prestigious Gold label from World Athletics, officially recognising the event as a world leader in marathons
The 2022 Blackmores Sydney Marathon will hold a World Athletics elite label.
In July 2022, The Blackmores Sydney Marathon was officially announced as a candidate race for the prestigious Abbott World Marathon Majors (Abbott WMM) - the first marathon in Oceania to be nominated and an incredibly exciting first step towards reigniting Sydney as a world-class running destination.
This will be our first event as part of the Abbott World Marathon Major candidacy program, a three-year evaluation process by Abbott WMM. If successful the Blackmores Sydney Marathon, will become a new member of an esteemed group of races - Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, TCS London Marathon, BMW-BERLIN Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon and TCS New York City Marathon.
The Blackmores Sydney Running Festival is supported by the NSW Government via its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.
The event is the only running event in Australia that is broadcast live and will be distributed into over 450 million households worldwide - including Eurosport Asia and Eurosport Europe, FUJI TV Japan, Shanghai TV (into 40 million households), Network 10 Australia, Fox Sports.
