The Short Cut: The Abbott World Marathon Majors launched in 2006 with five races and a prize pool. Two decades later it has eight, the Six Star Medal has turned marathon running into a global collecting habit, and Cape Town has just become Africa's first Major.
The Birth of a Series
On 23 January 2006, five of the world's biggest city marathons came together to launch the World Marathon Majors: Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City. The idea was to create a championship structure that raised the profile of elite racing and put real money behind it, with a $1 million prize pool split between the top male and female runners across the series.
The inaugural 2006–07 series opened at the 110th Boston Marathon on 17 April 2006. Boston, the oldest annual marathon in the world, had first been held in 1897. Berlin followed in 1974, London in 1981, and by the time the Majors were formed all five races were already drawing the world's best runners year after year.
Tokyo and the Six-Star Era
In 2013, Tokyo joined as the sixth Major, the first race in Asia to enter the series. The Tokyo Marathon had only debuted in 2007, but it quickly became the most oversubscribed of the lot, with applications outstripping places by as much as tenfold. Abbott Laboratories became title sponsor in 2015, giving the series its current name. Wheelchair competitions joined in 2016, and the same year brought the Six Star Medal, awarded to runners who completed all six Majors.
By April 2018, there were 3,786 verified Six Star Finishers. The medal altered the sport's behaviour in ways the organisers hadn't entirely anticipated. Runners stopped thinking about individual marathons and started thinking about the full set. A race circuit had become a multi-year project for hundreds of thousands of people.
Sydney Joins the Circuit
In November 2024, the series announced its seventh race: the Sydney Marathon. The inaugural AbbottWMM event took place on 31 August 2025, with Hailemaryam Kiros winning the men's race in a course record of 2:06:06 and Sifan Hassan taking the women's in 2:18:22. Nearly 33,000 runners finished, up considerably from the 1,200 who ran the first Sydney Marathon in 2001.
Destination NSW estimated that Majors status would add $300 million to the Australian economy over a decade. Sydney became the first Southern Hemisphere race on the circuit, and the first to introduce a ballot entry system from its opening year as a Major.
Cape Town Runs Its Case
Africa's candidacy had been years in the making. The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon passed its first AbbottWMM evaluation in 2023 and its second in October 2024. The 2025 edition was cancelled 90 minutes before the start after gale-force winds damaged structures near the race village, pushing the evaluation's final phase into 2026.
On 24 May 2026, Cape Town got its chance. Around 27,000 runners started on a clear autumn morning, and the race held up its end. Ethiopia's Huseydin Mohamed Esa won the men's elite in 2:04:55, shattering the previous course record of 2:08:16 and recording the fastest marathon ever run on African soil. Fellow Ethiopian Dera Dida Yami won the women's race in 2:23:18. Three of the four course records fell on the day.
The international field was the largest Cape Town had seen, with roughly 8,500 overseas entries, including 1,850 runners competing in the AbbottWMM Age Group World Championships, which brought five-year competitive age categories from 40 to over 80. Eliud Kipchoge ran the race as the first stop on a seven-continent tour, finishing 16th in 2:13:29.
AbbottWMM confirmed the outcome shortly after: Cape Town will join the series from 2027 as Africa's first Major and the eighth race on the circuit. The first full edition as a Major is scheduled for 23 May 2027. All 2026 finishers received a provisional star on their AbbottWMM journey.
What Comes Next
The six original Majors generate an estimated $1 billion in collective economic activity each year. But the circuit's pull on recreational runners runs deeper than economics. The star medal system, now a Seven Star Medal following Sydney's addition and soon to become a Nine Star Medal, has given marathon running a structure that didn't exist before 2006. Completing the full series has become a long-term goal for hundreds of thousands of runners, directing travel, training, and entry ballots across multiple years.
Cape Town gives the series representation on five continents and brings a race that has spent several years demonstrating it can deliver on the scale the circuit demands. The Shanghai Marathon is also in candidacy and would require a second evaluation before joining, making a nine-race series a genuine prospect within the decade.
The Extra Mile
- Abbott World Marathon Majors official announcement: Sanlam Cape Town Marathon becomes a Major
- Abbott World Marathon Majors series history: worldmarathonmajors.com