Men's Sydney Marathon field next month is stacked..... Or is it?

Edward cheserek is listed. Is he still with skechers?

What about Kofuzi and Believe in the Run?

Shame Matty Fox won’t be there 😢

Weirdly it looks like they may have edited the post to remove the final 3 images that listed the full elite fields. Maybe they jumped the gun on some of the names?

I don't get why you think it's great. In terms of PBs, it looks ok from a superficial level. For example, there are 9 guys in the field who have broken 2:05 and there are 19 guys who have run under 2:07 which is a lot but that doesn't mean anything.

What is compelling about it? Who is in form and not way past their peak? I'll see if I have time to write an article about the men's field tomorrow but I quickly looked up all 9 guys who have a pb under 2:05:00 to see what they've done recently. Here are the results.

docs.google.com

2025 Berlin By the Numbers

Open link

Only 4 of the 9 have broken 2:05 in the 2024 or 2025 and no one in the field has broken 2:04 during that time frame.

Kipchoge is well past his prime. #2 seed Birhanu Legese was 11th in Valencia and Rotterdam in his last two marathons. Samuel Fitwa ran 2:04:56 to set the German record in Valencia, but that placed him 9th.

Who is the favorite? The third-placer in Tokyo - Vincent Ngetich? The 3rd placer in Seoul - Bernard Koech? Repeat after me. Track and field doens't need more races. We need more races that matter.

Full disclaimer. I've never been a fan of WMM expansion. It's never made sense to me why you would want to dilute your product. There aren't enough elites to go around (particularly in the fall with Worlds and Syndey) and I think we are starting to see it. I wrote an editorial at the end or 2024 on this topic that I suggest you read if you haven't: "Expanding Into Irrelevance? World Marathon Majors Expansion Is Ill-Conceived Unless They Do This."

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2024/11/expanding-into-irrelevance-world-marathon-majors-expansion-is-ill-conceived-unless-they-do-this/

oh Rojo I'm just trying to pump up the event. The Sydney marathon will be very good and the course with over 1000 ft or 300m+ elevation gain will not make for super fast times but racing is racing. Running over the Sydney Harbour bridge will make for iconic viewing.

A first year major and you have Kipchoge and Hassan! That is pretty good work by the organising crew.

Just think on August 30th on a Saturday night at 8:15pm you will be able to watch some great racing in a country where you probably have never been.

PS. No one in the men's field made our top 10 rankings from last year.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2024/11/expanding-into-irrelevance-world-marathon-majors-expansion-is-ill-conceived-unless-they-do-this/

I'm a fan of WMM expansion. I think it's where the sport is headed, and that's not a bad thing. This is not tennis, or golf, and there's not really much use in pretending it is. There really aren't many similarities between the respective sports and marathoning, so that's a fully arbitrary standard.

But two things can be simultaneously true. WMM expansion is where the sport is headed because of the international growth of marathoning, AND this is a weak Sydney field. It is a weak field. But we can criticize the weakness of the field without then making broad proclamations about WMM expansion.

There are non-major marathons whose high end talent is better than this year's Sydney marathon. It's not a lack of global talent issue.

so what....Australian's get to see Kipchoge in person and the women's field is pretty strong. Don't be a Debbie Downer mate.

Marathoning or running is expanding if you consider particpation. But that's the fitness or life-style part, just as there was a cross-fit and now hyrox - hype.

The problem is that the competition part of the sport is diminishing. Top-level athletes take part in majors (or grand slams) but there aren't more toplevel runners, they just are more spread. Or if you consider this field. it's only a moment for has-beens to shine and get a pay-check one more time.

I endorse Rojo's stance: we need more meets that matter.

He is with Kiprun now. I think skechers may have gotten out of the track & field game, looks like they are targetting basketball heavily right now and track not at all.

Anybody see Matt Cox there?

I hate to root for bad weather, but a Kawauchi podium would be great.

Yawn. Let it go Anon. It’s an Australian marathon and they need a solid local field. If you have run a 62’ HM then you deserve a chance. Case closed

You wouldn’t know it from that poorly written article.

They shouldn’t expand the WMM but get rid of two b level marathons in America, and move to around the world on each continent, you could even say get rid of London and Berlin and use Valencia marathon instead for Europe.