Nageeye beats Chebet, and Kenyan women take the top three spots in the New York City Marathon

Dutchman Abdi Nageeye won the New York City Marathon on Sunday in two hours, seven minutes, and 39 seconds, after a tight battle in the last mile. Sheila Chepkirui led a Kenyan sweep of the women’s podium in 2:24:35.

Evan Chebet, the 2022 winner, was close to winning until Nageeye pulled away in the last 400 meters. The Kenyan finished in second place with a time of 2:07:45, and his fellow countryman Albert Korir came in third with a time of 2:08:00.

Nageeye said, “I was just thinking I’m dreaming.” He was enjoying his victory even more after a poor performance at the Paris Olympics, where he crashed into another runner and couldn’t finish the race.

Two Boston wins make Chebet one of the most accomplished runners in the sport. He looked in complete charge as he ran down the Queensboro Bridge to pick up the pace around the 16-mile mark, hoping to break up the tightly packed lead group.

Nageeye caught up to him quickly, though, and by the last mile, the two of them had left the rest of the field behind and were running shoulder-to-shoulder through the screaming fans.

As they made the last turn into Central Park, Chebet lost steam, and Nageeye ran the last straightaway by himself. This was two years after he finished third on the podium.

Chepkirui ran a technical, perfect race in the women’s race. She stayed with the lead pack from the beginning and beat former champion Hellen Obiri in a tough last mile to win her first major title.

Obiri crossed the line 14 seconds later. She had just finished third at the Paris Games 12 weeks before. Vivian Cheruiyot, 41, added more gold for Kenya in 2:25:21.

Three women from the same country won all five boroughs at the same time for the first time since 1976.

With a little more than a mile to go, Cheruiyot lost the lead. From then on, it was a two-woman race to the finish line, with Chepkirui slowly moving ahead of Obiri.

The king said, “I knew Hellen was strong.” “When we were around 600 metres to go, I say to myself ‘I have to push harder’.”

Obiri, who won her second straight race in Boston earlier this year with a devastating last kick, couldn’t hold on this time. With 200 meters to go, it was clear that Chepkirui had won the race.
“It’s very important to me because it means I trained well,” Chepkirui said. “It was really hard but I pushed myself to the limit.”

Daniel Romanchuk (1:36.31), an American, won his third title in the men’s wheelchair race. He passed David Weir of Great Britain in the last 400 meters and then sped to the finish line.

Weir crossed the line five seconds after Suzuki, and Tomoki Suzuki of Japan came in third with a time of 1:36:44.

American Susannah Scaroni blew away everyone else in the women’s wheelchair race when she broke the tape in 1:48:05.

Tatyana McFadden, who is from the same country and has won this race five times in New York, came in more than 10 minutes later, and Manuela Schar, who is from Switzerland, came in third in 1:59:20.

MAJORS ADD SYDNEY

Later on Sunday, the organizers of the World Marathon Majors announced that the Sydney Marathon would be the seventh race in the top series, starting next year. It is the first race to be added to the series since Tokyo in 2013.

The long-standing majors, such as London, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, and New York, started the nomination program for races in 2017 to make them more geographically diverse. The goal is to get the total number of races to nine.

Twenty years ago, only 2,300 people finished the Sydney Marathon. This year, 25,000 people signed up for the race, making it the biggest one yet.

Race director Wayne Larden told reporters in New York, “We’re just so proud and honored to be standing here with the six best marathons in the world.”