Hellen Obiri of Kenya set a women’s course record to win the New York City Marathon, while countrymate Benson Kipruto held off Alexander Mutiso Munyao in a sprint to the finish line to take the men’s race Sunday.
Obiri, who also won the race in 2023, finished in 2 hours, 19 minutes, 51 seconds. She was running with 2022 winner Sharon Lokedi until she pulled away from her countrymate in the final mile, surging ahead and besting the previous course record of 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo in 2003.
Defending champion Sheila Chepkirui finished third. All three beat the previous course best.
Kipruto and Mutiso Munyao separated themselves from the chase pack in the men’s race heading into Mile 24. Kipruto seemed to have put the race away, pulling away in the last 200 meters. But Mutiso Munyao, who also is from Kenya, wasn’t done, surging in the last 50 meters before falling short by less than 0.2 seconds.
Kipruto finished in 2:08.09 in adding the New York title to previous wins at Tokyo, Chicago and Boston.
In the women’s race, the trio of former champions separated themselves heading into the Bronx at Mile 20. American Fiona O’Keeffe and Dutch runner Sifan Hassan had made it a pack of five once the group entered Manhattan a few miles earlier but couldn’t hang on for the final six miles.
This was the first time that the previous three women’s winners had been in the same race since 2018. The trio didn’t disappoint, putting forth stellar efforts in the second straight year that Kenyans took the top three spots.
O’Keeffe finished fourth, with fellow American Annie Frisbie finishing fifth. Hassan, who won the Sydney Marathon two months ago, was next. Four of the top nine women’s finishers were Americans.
Kenyan Albert Korir, who won in 2021, was third for the men, giving Kenya a sweep of the top three spots in both the men’s and women’s races. Joel Reichow was the top American man, coming in sixth.
Eliud Kipchoge, who turns 41 on Wednesday, seemingly wrapped up a historic run as one of the most accomplished marathoners in the sport. He ran the New York City Marathon for the first time and finished 17th.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland and Susannah Scaroni of the United States won the men’s and women’s wheelchair races, with Hug taking his record seventh victory in the race and Scaroni claiming her third title.
The 26.2-mile course takes runners through all five boroughs of New York, starting in Staten Island and ending in Manhattan’s Central Park. This is the 49th year the race has been in all five boroughs. Before that, the route was completely in Central Park. The first race had only 55 finishers while a record 55,642 people finished last year, the largest in the history of the sport until the London Marathon broke it earlier this year.
The weather was great to run in Sunday, with temperatures in the 50s when the race started.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.