For Sunday’s Sydney Marathon, more than 35000 runners will take part, and alongside them for the first time, two sporting greats will step on the track. Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge and current Olympic champion Sifan Hassan are the major names that will participate in the marquee event.
Hassan has said that she has skipped the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which are a couple of weeks away, to participate in Sydney. “I don’t think I’m going to recover (in time for World Championships). The first couple days, I barely walk after the marathon,” Hassan said. “It was so hard hard decision for me because since 2015, I have never skipped any World Championships.”
Hassan, although she has won two gold medals and a bronze at Tokyo she said her heart was always at the Sydney Marathon. “I really thought about what to do, but my heart really wants to be in this marathon in Australia,” she said.
In addition to the aforementioned athletes, three-time Olympian Jessica Stenson also opted to participate in the Sydney event. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and my family will be out there watching this and the Australian community, so I think there’s something really special about that,” Stenson said.
The winner of the competition will win $30,000 in prize money and $10,000 bonus if they manage to break the Australian record. “That certainly is something that helps you when you’re making those decisions,” Stenson said. “But for me, it’s just a privilege to compete against such a world-class field on the domestic and international front, so it’s exciting that those sorts of factors have attracted such a strong field,” she added.
Leanne Pompeani, who made a record earlier this year by running the fastest marathon by an Australian woman on her debut and qualifying for the Tokyo event, also opted to ply her trade in Sydney this coming Sunday.
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