Two US citizens, a Dutch resident and a woman from Kenya have been named the winners of the New York City Marathon.
The 26.2-mile races took place on Sunday. Sheila Chepkirui, 33, of Kenya and Abdi Nageeye, 35, of the Netherlands were named the winners of the women’s and men’s races respectively.
Chepkirui beat another native Kenyan, Hellen Obiri, the defending champion, out of the title. Chepkirui finished 15 seconds before Obiri.
Daniel Romanchuck, 26, and Susannah Scaroni, 33, two Americans, won the men’s and women’s wheelchair races. Romanchuck previously won the competition in 2018 and 2019. He finished the race in one hour, 36 minutes and 31 seconds, defeating Marcel Hug’s three-year streak.
Scaroni finished in third place last year. This is the second time she’s won the wheelchair race. She finished the race in one hour, four minutes and five seconds. It was the first time both Americans have won the wheelchair races, according to CBS News.
Chepkirui and Nageeye will each go home with $100,000 in prize money. The winners of the wheelchair races each get $35,000 and $50,000 if they have broken the course record.
About 50,000 runners took part in the race on Sunday, some of them celebrities, Randall Park of Fresh Off the Boat, Jennifer Connelly of Top Gun: Maverick and Claire Holt of The Vampire Diaries.
Tamirat Tola, 33, a Paris Olympic gold medalist and winner of last year’s men’s race, finished fourth.
“I had a good year,” he told the Associated Press through a translator. “I won the Olympics and then to come back to New York after that, you know it’s a tough course. I know that I expended a lot of energy. Around the 33-kilometer mark I felt my muscle tighten and my muscles just couldn’t handle it.”
Shortly after crossing the finish line, Nageeye, the men’s winner told the outlet “At the finish, I was like, am I dreaming? I won New York.”
“I was thinking like a cyclist, survive 36k and you’re going to win,”
Chepkirui, who started running marathons two years ago, told the outlet she knew she was going to win when she turned around and didn’t see her opponent behind her.
“Let me push the last mile, let me give it my best,” the winner said she was thinking as she ran. “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.”
Two Americans finished sixth in both men’s and women’s races. After the competition, it was announced that the Sydney Marathon would be the next major race. Berlin, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo and London are also expected to hold races in the near future.
