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Sydney to host 2024 AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships

The 2024 Sydney Marathon will host the 2024 Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships on Sunday, 15 September 2024.
 
The event will see the championship visit its third continent since the inaugural race within the TCS London Marathon in 2021. The 2023 event will take place within the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 8.
 
The Abbott World Marathon Majors Wanda Age Group World Championships is one of the biggest road running championships on the international running calendar for athletes aged 40 and over. The championship event attracts thousands of the world's best age group runners to compete in nine age categories, and the Sydney Marathon will make history by becoming the first race to host the championship outside the official Six AbbottWMM races in the championship’s history.
 
Dawna Stone, Abbott World Marathon Majors CEO said: “We are thrilled to bring the AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championships to a third continent as we continue to pursue our vision of inspiring the world through marathons.
 
“Taking the event to the southern hemisphere is another big step forward towards making the Age Group World Championships a truly global opportunity for our community.”
 
The Hon. Chris Minns, Premier for NSW, stated, "We’re excited to add this event to our line-up of sporting competitions, showcasing our city, along with attracting visitors and some
of the world’s best athletes.”
 
There are three pathways that runners can earn their place in Sydney next year:

  1. Achieving the Automatic Qualifying Times for their age group in one of over 350 qualifying global events (See qualifying times here and remaining qualifying races here).
  2. Highly ranked athletes without an Automatic Qualifying Time may receive an invitation (depending on the full field size and the number of athletes achieving the qualifying time).
  3. Rank among the top 200 fastest verified finishers at the bi-annual Abbott WMM Global Marathon, held within the Global Run Club (Enter here).
     

Qualifying for the 2024 Age Group World Championships began on 1 January 2023 and runs until 31 December 2023. Runners who qualify for a 2024 AbbottWMM Wanda Age Group World Championship place will be notified early 2024 from Abbott WMM directly once the Age Group World Rankings have officially closed and results have been verified.

Listen to Sydney Race Director Wayne Larden's interview about the Age Group World Championships landing in Australia next year on this week's episode of Marathon Talk:

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