By David Monti, @d9monti | (c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved; used with permission
NEW YORK (03-Nov) — In two exciting races which both boiled down to just two contenders in the final kilometer, Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui and Dutchman Abdi Nageeye won their first TCS New York City Marathons on a gloriously clear and chilly morning here. Chepkirui, 33, pulled away from compatriot and defending champion Hellen Obiri with a little more than 800 meters to go and won in 2:24:35 (1:10:36 for the second half). Nageeye, 35, made a similar move at the same spot against 2022 race champion Evans Chebet of Kenya and became the first Dutch athlete –and the first European man since Giacomo Leone of Italy in 1996– to win here. His time was 2:07:39 to Chebet’s 2:07:45. Both winners won $100,000 in prize money.
WOMEN STICK TOGETHER
The all-women’s elite race began conservatively, just 18:16 through the first 5-K. But the pace picked up once the mostly flat section of the course in Brooklyn was reached. There were 20 women in the lead pack through 10-K, including eight-time Fifth Avenue Mile champion Jenny Simpson of Boulder, Colo. The 38 year-old announced last week that this would be the last professional race of her career (she would finish 18th in 2:31:54).
“The energy was amazing,” Simpson told Race Results Weekly. “I got to choose a final race, and it had to be New York. I am not from New York, but the best of my running has happened in New York City. So, I feel like if it’s possible for me to have a hometown crowd in the United States, it’s New York City, and they gave that to me today. All through the course, all 26 miles, they were yelling my name. It really moved me today.”
Chepkirui was the nominal leader at halfway (1:13:59), and the lead pack was still 20-strong with all of the race’s best athletes still there, including Kenyans Obiri, Sharon Lokedi, and Vivian Cheruiyot; Ethiopia’s Dera Dida; Bahrain’s Eunice Chumba; and the United States’ Dakotah Popehn, Sara Vaughn, and Kellyn Taylor.
Cheruiyot, 41, was feeling good. The last time she raced in New York was in the New York City Half-Marathon in 2019. On a very cold March day, her body temperature dropped so much that she was forced to drop out and had to go to the hospital.
“I still remember where I stopped,” Cheruiyot told reporters today. “Today the weather was good, at least it was not that bad. It was really freezing from the starting point, but then it was OK.”
The first big move happened on the Queensboro Bridge where the athlete pass through the 25 km point high above the East River. Chepkirui put in a surge and the race began to break up. By the 30 km mark the lead pack had reached the more manageable size of ten: Chepkirui, Obiri, Teferi, Dida, Cheruiyot, Vaughn, Lokedi, Chumba, Britain’s Lily Partridge, and Switzerland’s Fabienne Schlumpf. That downhill 5-kilometer segment was run in 16:52, the fastest split of the race so far. Chepkirui felt strong and in control.
“New York is a bit challenging,” she said. “It’s uphill and downhill, not like London and Berlin. New York takes a lot of strength.” She continued: “Here it’s not about time, it’s about winning.”
With that in mind, she dropped the pace in the next 5-kilometer segment, splitting 16:36 through 35 km and cutting the lead pack down to just five: Chepkirui, Obiri, Teferi, Cheruiyot and Chumba. Vaughn was 17 seconds back in seventh place and was running as the top American. She had dropped out of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon three weeks before with an illness, but was feeling great today.
“Sometimes all it takes is to get a chance,” she said later about New York Road Runners’ decision to give her a last-minute place in the race.
Chepkirui wasn’t done pressing the pace. As the five leaders ran south on Fifth Avenue and entered Central Park at 90th Street, they were running faster than ever. Running single file, Chepkirui led Obiri and Cheruiyot. They hit the 40 km point at 2:17:47, running the fastest 5-K segment of the race, 16:24. That set up the final two-woman clash between Chepkirui and Obiri when the pair entered Central Park for the final kilometer to the finish. Chepkirui knew Obiri was one of the all-time greats, and it would take a special effort to beat her.
“I know Hellen was strong,” Chepkirui said. “What was in my mind I say to myself, let me push. In the last mile I say to myself, I give my best. With 600 (meters) to go I say to myself, I have to push harder.”
With 800 meters to go, Chepkirui led by three strides. She took a look back and realized that Obiri wasn’t closing the gap.
“I saw she was not coming,” Chepkirui said.
From there, the adidas-sponsored athlete sailed to the finish line and beat Obiri by a comfortable 14 seconds. Cheruiyot got third in 2:25:21, and Chumba fourth in 2:25:58. Schlumpf took fifth in 2:26:31, and Vaughn sixth in 2:26:56.
“Winning today means a lot to me,” said Chepkirui. She added: “I’m really happy for the win.”
Obiri was at peace with her runner-up finish. She had won the Boston Marathon last April and had taken the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Getting second here was a fine season-ending performance.
“For me it was a good race,” Obiri said. “Three marathons in a year; I am so happy to finish the year.”
Vaughn was thrilled to be the top American, especially after dropping out in Chicago.
“I have a very full life and I have designed it that way,” said the mother of four, who also sells real estate. She added: “This is pretty special.”
NAGEEYE THOUGHT ABOUT PARIS
What was driving Nageeye today was his disappointing performance at the Paris Olympic Marathon last August. He said today that he knew he was having a bad day in Paris just six kilometers in, and ended up dropping out in the 41st kilometer. He went home and decided to focus on running well in New York, instead.
“I went back to training,” he said. “You can do something great in one of the best marathons in the world. Every day I was thinking about Paris.”
Like the women, the men stayed together in the early parts of the race, and it wasn’t until the 25 km mark where something important happened. Descending the Queensboro Bridge Chebet, the 2022 race champion, surged down the steep hill where the course spills onto First Avenue in Manhattan. Six athletes were able to respond: Nageeye, Kenyans Geoffrey Kamworor, Albert Korir and Wesley Kiptoo, and Ethiopians Addisu Gobena and Tamirat Tola. Tola was the race’s defending champion who had also won the Olympic Marathon last August.
Nageeye –who had finished third, fourth and fifth in his previous appearances at the TCS New York City Marathon– knew he needed to cover Chebet’s move, but not to overdo it. He knew how challenging the second half of the course would be.
“I think 100% I knew the course,” he said. He continued: “Last year I had a lot of problems with my stitch. My goal was not to have that happen again.”
Chebet ran 14:09 from 25 to 30 km (nearly all downhill), then 14:23 from 30 to 35 km. That left only Chebet, Nageeye, and Kamworor in the lead group. Tola was four seconds back, and Korir was eight seconds adrift. Conner Mantz, the top American, was in seventh place 64 seconds behind.
Coming down the final hill in Central Park before the course turns west onto Central Park South, Nageeye and Chebet worked together to drop the rest of the field. The pair were alone re-entering the Park before the finish where Nageeye made his final bid for victory with about 900 meters to go. It was a long-time coming for an athlete who had run 23 marathons and who had never won one of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.
“I knew at the end I have a little bit more in my tank,” he said. He added: “At the beginning, nobody was beating me today.”
Chebet took second in 2:07:45, and Korir passed both Kamworor and Tola to take third in 2:08-flat (it was Korir’s fourth podium finish in New York). Kamworor, who had made the podium here in all four previous appearances, finished fifth in 2:08:50.
Mantz, who won the USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon last February and was the top American at the Paris Olympics (eighth place), was also the top American today, finishing sixth in 2:09:00. He was satisfied with his performance, but a little disappointed that the pace of the race wasn’t faster.
“I was really excited to be part of the New York City Marathon,” Mantz said. He added: “I kind of got destroyed when Evans made his move.”
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The professional wheelchair titles went to Americans Susaannah Scaroni and Daniel Romanchuk. Scaroni, who had a terrible race at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon three weeks ago after getting a flat tire, totally dominated here today. She clocked 1:29:06 and won by eight and one-half minutes. Romanchuk won in a three-way sprint over Briton David Weir and Japanese Tomoki Suzuki. Romanchuk was timed in 1:36:31. Six-time champion Marcel Hug of Switzerland was fourth.
