On a sunny but brisk Australian morning, Eliud Kipchoge ran a strong race at the Sydney Marathon, placing ninth in a time of 2:08:31.
After he crossed the finish line, in the shadows of the Sydney Opera House, Kipchoge promptly broke into a smile, congratulating those who finished before him.
The race was the 23rd marathon of the 40-year-old’s career, which dates back 13 years to his debut at the distance at the 2013 Berlin Marathon.
Hailemaryam Kiros of Ethiopia took the overall victory at Sydney in 2:06:06, while his compatriot, Addisu Gobena, was runner-up in 2:06:16. Tebello Ramakongoana of Lesotho rounded out the podium in third (2:06:47).
Kipchoge, along with Sifan Hassan in the women’s field, was the headliner of the race, which is in its Boston Marathon Qualifying Standards Get Tougher. The race started at 6:30 a.m. local time on Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in the U.S.), and the temperature hovered in the mid 40s to low 50s.
For the opening half of the race, Kipchoge looked comfortable, running in the second line of a group of about 15 runners, tucked behind pacers. The peloton came through 13.1 miles in 1:03:45 (2:07:30 pace), and at 30K, the group remained together—but not for long.
Around a kilometer later, the lead pack began to string out in Centennial Park, led by a charge from Laban Korir—Kipchoge’s NN Running teammate. At the 35K split, Kipchoge had fallen 12 seconds back from the leaders.
While he continued to lose time on the head of the race, Kipchoge was still able to make it to the finish without slowing too much.
Coming off a rough 2024, where he was 10th at the Tokyo Marathon in March and dropped out of the Paris Olympic Marathon due to a hip injury, Kipchoge has rebounded to find his form in 2025. In April, he raced the London Marathon, and although he fell off the front pack around 90 minutes into the race, he looked in control and finished in a respectable 2:05:25.
Regardless of what he does at this point in his career, Kipchoge is still considered to be the greatest marathoner of all time. He’s won 11 World Marathon Majors and two Olympic titles, owns a race-legal personal best of 2:01:09 (a then world record), and is the only person to break the 2:00 barrier.
Kipchoge has also functioned as an ambassador for the sport of running, especially in the late stages of his career. When Sydney race organizers announced in March that he would be competing, Kipchoge said he was eager to see the Australian spectators.
“I’m excited to sell the idea of making the world a running world—to sell the idea of marathoning to Australia as a running nation,” he said at the time.
Notable Celebs Who Ran the New York City Marathon Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
