00:00The majors are considered the most elite marathons in the world, of course there's plenty around
00:07Australia from regional towns such as Port Stephens to the Gold Coast and even bigger
00:12cities like Melbourne and Sydney obviously have in the last couple of decades really
00:16tried to grow the size of their marathons along with the advent of running.
00:21But to see not just the increase in the number of overall people running in this Sydney Marathon
00:26and particularly over the last two years rapidly growing from about 5,000 entrants
00:30to around 25,000 in this year's sold out marathon, it's been a massive growth and the Premier
00:38Chris Mins says this is particularly significant on the matter of economic benefit.
00:44The economic impact on the city is fantastic, $300 million over a decade but you can just
00:51imagine the number of people that see Sydney on television or attend the city as a spectator
00:57or a participant who want to bring their family and friends in the years ahead.
01:00I think the multiplier on that is much, much bigger and we'll be able to see the tourism
01:05benefits of being one of the majors in the years ahead.
01:09It's going to move forward a bit in the calendar to August 31st next year, now whether or not
01:14August 31st or the last Sunday in August becomes its regular home on the majors calendar remains
01:19to be seen.
01:20Of course when you're trying to balance seven marathon races they do try to space them out
01:25but invariably, particularly in Olympic years or years of other elite events and meets for
01:31marathon runners, there is a degree of compromise that has to happen there.
01:36But one of the race's leadership, Simon Bryan, he spoke a lot about the idea of how adjusting
01:41to this kind of event means you're also seeing a lot more people not just running in the
01:46race but also coming to watch the events as well.
01:50For the running community of Australia and obviously Sydney it's massive, I mean the
01:54world majors is the pinnacle of running as I mentioned before so to see Sydney become
01:59part of that global stage is incredible.
02:03So we will see an uplift in running, the boom of running will continue no doubt and we hope
02:08to jump on the back of that as well.
02:11So that's Simon Bryan talking about the boom of running now, that's a very observable thing
02:15not just in marathon competition where we've seen the amount of amateur runners really
02:19increase but also in things such as run clubs which have become the pride of many big and
02:24small towns across Australia in the way they've really engaged the young people and that's
02:29been a concerted thing both the New South Wales Government has noticed as well as major
02:33events like the Sydney Marathon that have really tried to tap into drawing those people
02:38into becoming part of the running community and participating in these events.
02:43Now of course I did say that the event would change to some degree in terms of its start
02:47date as well those wishing to actually enter the race they'll now have to enter a ballot
02:51draw, there'll be some elite runners who are invited as well as those who can enter the
02:56race through charitable means by raising significant amounts of money for charity or even through
03:01these running tourism companies but most people will have to enter these ballots, both race
03:06directors as well as the New South Wales Government say there will be quotas to ensure there are
03:11local runners not just from New South Wales but also Australia in that ballot getting
03:15preferential treatment, there's about 35,000 people expected in 2025's Sydney edition.
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