by Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya have won the 2024 New York Marathon, each winning in the final stages of the race to claim their first major world titles.
After a brutal 26.2-mile course through New York’s five boroughs, from Staten Island to Central Park in the heart of Manhattan, Nageeye, 35, reached the finish in 2:07:39, just six seconds ahead of Evans Chebet, the 2022 edition. men’s champion.
Related: From Olympian to 45-race veteran: The hopes of New York Marathon runners
Chepkirui, 33, finished in 2:24:35, with defending champion Hellen Obiri still visible over her shoulder as she crossed the finish line. Vivian Cheruiyot finished third, capping an all-Kenyan podium.
“The last corner was really difficult,” Chepkirui said after the race. “I was always with Hellen and I said to myself, ‘I have to push to the finish line’.”
Just 12 weeks after the Olympic marathons, the elite field was filled with athletes planning their returns after Paris. “It’s like running the Olympics, then running another Olympic race,” Ethiopian Tamirat Tola, the 2024 Paris champion, who came to New York to defend his 2023 title in the city, told the Guardian earlier this week. . Tola, 33, finished fourth on Sunday, just behind Albert Korir, the Kenyan winner of New York in 2021.
For Nageeye, this weekend was an opportunity to recover and try again, after a hip injury forced him to abandon just a few kilometers before the finish in Paris. This time, it was during the largest marathon in the world that he won.
“I wanted revenge,” Nageeye said after the race. The Olympic withdrawal was “one of my biggest disappointments ever,” he added. “Every day” during training he thought of Paris, “but every day I did my training [at] like 110%, and everything went so well that I had a lot of confidence today.
New York is a notoriously unpredictable race for those at the front of the pack. “It’s a mental race,” Obiri said, because “you never know” when it really starts. “You have to be ready,” she said. “If it moves at 17 miles, you’re ready; if [she moves at] 40k, you’re ready.
Obiri, a bronze medalist in Paris, was ready in the final stages of the race. But so was Chepkirui. After a hard kick, Chepkirui finished just 15 seconds ahead of Obiri.
Obiri and Tola had discussed the prospect of a faster run in New York; Tola on Thursday called the course record he set last year “breakable.” “I think it’s possible to run faster on this course,” he said, “whether now or in the future.”
Sunday was not the day. Tola’s men’s course record of 2:04:58 and Margaret Okayo’s women’s course record of 2:22:31, set in 2003, still stand.
Hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx to cheer as an estimated 50,000 runners raced through the city on Sunday, tackling what is widely considered the toughest major marathon in the world. world.
Three American men and women each placed in the top 10.
Training partners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, who also made the top 10 in Paris, finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the men’s race; CJ Albertson, the top American in Chicago just three weeks ago and in Boston this spring, finished 10th.
Sarah Vaughn, forced by illness to abandon Chicago last month, bounced back to finish sixth among the women, as the top American. Jessica McClain and Kellyn Taylor were close behind, eighth and 10th, respectively.
Two Americans also finished first in wheelchair races for the first time, with Daniel Romanchuk edging Britain’s David Weir in the men’s race; and Susannah Scaroni winning the women’s match with a 10-minute lead. Marcel Hug, who had won 16 consecutive men’s wheelchair marathons, saw his streak come to an end.
The bridges serve as pillars of this marathon. Athletes start on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, crossing Brooklyn; arrive in Queens via Pulaski, halfway; and cross the Queensborough, as they reach Manhattan at mile 16 and things get really tough. Two more follow, booking a single mile through the Bronx.
The difficult climbs in New York invited comparison with this summer’s Olympic course. But there is “a big difference” between the two courses, Mantz noted: While the hills were steep in Paris, with many flat sections along the course, New York is hillier. The hills continue until the end.
“I’m a good mountain runner,” Mantz said before the race, pointing to New York’s two significant climbs in the second half. “If I execute correctly until then, then I think it will highlight my strengths.”
Young had always been “intimidated” by New York. “I’m a Chicago guy,” having finished seventh in the Windy City last year, in a personal best. “Let’s keep things flat, let’s keep things fast.”
But this year and the Olympics have changed his way of thinking. Young finished ninth in Paris, just 44 seconds off his personal best, despite the elevation. “I came away with a lot of confidence,” Young told the Guardian this week.
“I am a resilient runner. The worse the better,” he said. “I used to be a little afraid of hills, but now I kind of think: make it hot, make it humid, make it miserable, make it rainy, make it cold, make it hilly, make it hilly, make it -whatever you want. – because I know mentally that I can handle this better than anyone.
The New York City Marathon, organized by the New York Road Runners, has come a long way since its beginning in 1970. That year, 127 athletes lined up at the start line and only 55 finished.
Along with Chicago, Berlin, Boston, London and Tokyo, New York is one of the six major world marathons. However, during Sunday’s race, organizers confirmed a seventh: Sydney would join them next year.
Des Linden is a two-time Olympian. In 2018, she became the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years. In 2021, she set a world record in the 50 km. She has already led New York four times.
This weekend, she did it again. Linden, 41, has nothing left to prove. But the thrill of competition – and the challenge of New York – led her to a different starting line. She was rewarded with an 11th place, less than five minutes from the leaders.
“You never know how the race is going to go,” Linden told the Guardian in September. “Anything can happen.”
