Abdi Nageeye and Sheila Chepkirui used strong kicks in the final mile to pull away from their nearest competitors and both win the New York City Marathon for the first time on Sunday.
Nageeye, who became the first runner from the Netherlands to win the men’s race, was step-for-step with 2022 champion Evans Chebet before using a burst of speed heading into Central Park to cross the finish line in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 39 seconds. Chebet finished 6 seconds behind.
“At the finish I was like, am I’m dreaming? I won New York,” Nageeye said. He had run the New York race three times before, with his best finish coming in 2022 when he was third.
In the women’s race, Chepkirui was running New York for the first time and pulled away from defending champion Hellen Obiri in the last stretch, winning in 2:24.35. Obiri finished nearly 15 seconds behind, while Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya took third.
“Let me push the last mile, let me give it my best,” the Kenyan Chepkirui said. “When we were around 600 meters to go, I said to myself I have to push harder. When I saw Hellen wasn’t coming, I knew I was going to win and was so happy.”
The top Americans were Conner Mantz in sixth place for the men and Sara Vaughn in sixth for the women. Vaughn had been in the lead group heading into the Bronx before falling off the pace.
In the wheelchair races, Daniel Romanchuk of the U.S. upset three-time defending champion Marcel Hug to win the men’s title, while Susannah Scaroni also claimed victory for the American women.
The 26.2-mile course took runners through all five boroughs of New York City, starting in Staten Island and ending in Central Park. This year’s race featured perfect running conditions, with temperatures in the lower 40s at the start.
The victories by Nageeye and Chepkirui marked the first time since 2012 that neither the men’s nor women’s champions were from Kenya. Their dominant performances highlighted the international appeal of the prestigious New York City Marathon.
