How Does a Marathon Become a World Major?

Every runner who finished the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on 24 May 2026 went home with a provisional star. It would count on their Abbott World Marathon Majors record only if the race itself passed its assessment that day. On 10 June, AbbottWMM confirmed Cape Town as the eighth Major and said the stars would be fully upgraded in the coming weeks.

A marathon becomes a World Major through a candidacy. Assessors from the existing Majors judge it on race day, and it has to pass two of those assessments in a row. Sydney needed three editions to do it. Cape Town needed four, plus a race that was cancelled before the start. Shanghai has passed once, and its deciding race is on 6 December 2026.

A race must pass two assessments in a row

World Marathon Majors states the rule in one line: "Race must pass two consecutive assessments before admission to AbbottWMM." The first pass is called stage one and the second is stage two. A failed year does not end a candidacy. Cape Town failed two before its first pass.

WMM's candidate announcements also say a race must meet the criteria "over a three-year period". Cape Town ran past that window and was still admitted. A race cancelled between its two passes did not break the sequence.

The verdict does not come at the finish line. Sydney's deciding race was on 15 September 2024, and the announcement came seven weeks later, on 3 November, at the New York City Marathon. Cape Town waited 17 days after its 24 May race.

Before any assessment, a race has to be brought into the process. Sydney, Cape Town and Shanghai were all introduced by Infront, a sports marketing agency, under a strategic partnership with AbbottWMM. Infront is also a shareholder in the Cape Town race.

Other races have tried. Under an earlier plan "to identify three major marathon events in areas such as Asia (not including Japan) and Africa", the Majors evaluated the Singapore Marathon. Chengdu was China's candidate and was assessed in 2022 and 2023 without a pass. Shanghai replaced it from 2024.

What the assessors look at

The assessors are the race directors and operations directors of the existing Majors. They judge the race while it happens. Destination NSW said Sydney "was assessed by an international delegation from AbbottWMM during the event in September" of 2023.

No scoring sheet has been published. None of the published releases gives a minimum field size or elite standard. The closest thing to a list is one paragraph from the release confirming Cape Town:

"The rigorous criteria used to assess candidate races throughout the multi-year evaluation and review process encompass every aspect of the runner experience, from the marathon expo to all operational, infrastructural, and sporting elements, including course design and finish-area management. In addition, the quality of the elite field, operational execution, safety standards, and numerous other factors form part of the assessment."

The elite field is the one area where someone inside a candidacy has given a number. Elana Meyer is Cape Town's race ambassador. In 2021 she described what the bid meant for invitations: "Before we were required to invite athletes in the Top 100 to 200 in the world, but now we must invite athletes in the top 25 to come and run our race." She said the prize money had to rise. She also said a wheelchair race had to be added, "as all major races have it." That is her account of what Cape Town was asked to do. WMM has not published it as a rule.

Sydney failed its first year

Before its candidacy, the Sydney Marathon was part of a festival of mixed distances with about 5,000 participants.

Sydney became a candidate in 2022 and did not pass that year. To get through, it changed the race. The 10km and other shorter events were dropped. The course was revamped to take out low-speed turns. Incentives were rolled out to bring in more runners. The finish moved to the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House.

The September 2023 race passed. AbbottWMM CEO Dawna Stone said it "made significant improvements in a number of areas where we required it to raise standards following its 2022 event." Sydney was the first candidate to pass a stage-one assessment.

The second pass came on 15 September 2024. That edition also hosted the Age Group World Championships, and more than 25,000 people took part. Sydney ran as the seventh Major on 31 August 2025. It was the first addition to the series since Tokyo in 2013.

The bid had public money behind it. Destination NSW funded it, and estimates the status will add $73 million in visitor spending over three years.

Cape Town lost a year to the wind

Cape Town became the first candidate in Africa in 2021. Its assessments began in 2022. WMM described October 2023 as "its second assessment year" and said the race "has not yet achieved a pass". In October 2024, assessed for the third time, it passed stage one.

The stage-two race was set for 19 October 2025. Overnight winds tore through the start and finish area. Marquee tents were destroyed, and branding was ripped from fences and scaffolding. At about 5:00 a.m., ahead of the 6:15 start, the race was cancelled. About 24,000 runners were affected. The race made the decision jointly with the city's Joint Operations Committee, which includes disaster management, medical services and the police. Clark Gardner leads the race. "We have worked for months on planning for all scenarios and conditions," he said, "but ultimately a bigger force had the final say."

Some press reported that Cape Town had missed out. AbbottWMM's statement said otherwise: "The cancellation of the 2025 event means that the evaluation was not completed." The October 2024 pass still stood.

The next edition was set for 24 May 2026. AbbottWMM decided to award provisional stars to every finisher of that race. They would be "fully recognised if Cape Town achieves its second evaluation pass in 2026." Sanlam offered to fund 2026 or 2027 entries for everyone entered in the cancelled 2025 race.

The May race passed, and the confirmation came on 10 June 2026. "Africa's first Major has finally arrived," Stone said. Gardner said: "This is a moment generations of African runners have waited for, and it belongs to everyone who carried us here." The ballot for the first Cape Town Major opened the same day and closed on 24 June. That race is on 23 May 2027.

Shanghai's deciding race is on 6 December

The Shanghai Marathon was founded in 1996. In 2020 it became the first Chinese race to earn World Athletics' Platinum Label. It ranked ninth in World Athletics' 2025 global marathon rankings.

Shanghai joined the candidacy in 2024, and its December 2024 race did not pass. In November 2025 it passed stage one at its second assessment. "Our evaluation team was very impressed with the event they witnessed in November," Stone said.

The deciding Shanghai Marathon is on 6 December 2026, about five weeks away. A second pass would make Shanghai a Major from 2027. If the earlier cases are a guide, the verdict will come some weeks after the race.

What changes for runners when a race joins

A new Major adds a star to a runner's Majors record. A finish time in the official results is enough to earn it, and there is no time limit for collecting all the stars. Runners who finished Sydney during its candidacy got no star for it. The one exception was the 2024 Age Group World Championship finishers.

The Six Star Medal does not change. WMM says runners who complete the original six Majors "will continue to earn the Six Star Medal." There is no seven or eight star medal. Sydney and Cape Town finishers get the star and can buy a coin or display. The next medal is the Nine Star, which needs a ninth Major. If Shanghai passes in December, the earliest it can begin is 2027.

The bigger change is getting a place. Sydney's first ballot as a Major drew 79,083 applications for about 35,000 places. International applications rose eight-fold on the year before.

For 2026, more than 123,000 runners entered the ballot for a race aiming at 40,000 finishers. Sydney's Candidacy Club gave guaranteed entries to runners who had supported the race during its three-year candidacy. Charity places and travel packages offer other ways in. A separate 42cal post sets out the ballot odds at every World Marathon Major.