Eliud Kipchoge adds the 2026 Melbourne Marathon to his world tour

Eliud Kipchoge will add a piece of his rich athletics legacy to the 2026 Melbourne Marathon when he competes there on 11 October, the third stop of his world tour.

It will be the second marathon in Oceania for the long-distance running legend, who has notched victories in Berlin, Chicago and London, after finishing ninth at the 2025 Sydney Marathon.

“When you talk of Australia, you can’t [fail] to talk about Melbourne, especially if you are a sports person, as it’s a sporting city,” Kipchoge said on Thursday 12 March, when he announced that he would be running again in Australia.

“Melbourne is a legendary city, remembering that they also hosted the 1956 Olympics, which brought a lot of [fame] to the city. I am looking forward to being in Melbourne and visiting the [Grand Prix] track as a Formula 1 fan. I need to see the F1 track, the cricket grounds and even the venue that hosts the Australian Tennis Open.”

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The double Olympic marathon gold medallist will have the opportunity to tick off some of his bucket list while in Melbourne.

The marathon organisers have made some big changes to the largely flat course this year. The adaptations will make it easier to accommodate the over 60,000 people who will line up for various races across the marathon weekend.

The course, which is raced partly on the Formula 1 Grand Prix track, is also expected to be faster than in past years, as the previous elevation gain at the 36km mark has been reduced, which should result in a quicker finish at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Kenya's Timothy Kiplagat Ronoh set the men's Melbourne Marathon course record in 2022 with a time of 2:09:12, which is significantly slower than Kipchoge's personal best of 2:01:09 from the 2022 Berlin Marathon, where he set a new world record for the second time.

Australia will be the 41-year-old's final stop in 2026, as he embarks on a world tour that will see him compete in Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, South America and North America.

He hopes to finish off the seven-stop, two-year challenge in Antarctica.

This week, he also shared his plans to run his first-ever marathon in Africa, at the Cape Town Marathon on 24 May, and then head off to Brazil for a marathon in Porto Alegre on 12 July.

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