by Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands and Sheila Chepkirui du Kenya won the New York 2024 marathon, each prevailing in the last stages of the race to win their first world titles.
After a brutal of 26.2 miles through the five arrondissements of New York, from Staten Island to Central Park, in the heart of Manhattan, Nageeye, 35, reached the arrival in 2:07:39, only six seconds In advance on Evans Chebet, the 2022 male champion.
In relation: From an Olympian to a 45 races veteran: the hopes of the New York marathon runners
Chepkirui, 33, finished in 2:24:35, with the reigning female champion Hellen Obiri still visible on her shoulder while she crossed the line. Vivian Cheruiyot finished third, capping an All-Kenyan podium.
“The last lap was really difficult,” said Chepkirui after the race. “I was still with Hellen, and I said to myself:” I have to push to the finish line. “
Only 12 weeks after the Olympic marathons, the elite field was filled with athletes organizing their post-Paris returns. “It’s like directing the Olympic Games then running another Olympic race,” said Tamirat Tola, the Paris 2024 champion, came to New York to defend his title in 2023 in the city in the city earlier in the city. . Tola, 33, finished fourth Sunday, warm on the tail of Albert Korir, the Kenyan who won New York in 2021.
For Nageeye, this weekend presented a chance to recover and try again, after a hip injury forced her to withdraw a few kilometers before arriving in Paris. This time – to the largest marathon in the world – he prevailed.
“I was released for revenge,” said Nageeye after the race. Olympic withdrawal was “one of my biggest disappointments of all time,” he added. “Every day” during training, he thought in Paris, “but every day I did my training [at] Like 110%, and it was so fluid that I had a lot of confidence today. »»
New York is a notoriously unpredictable race for people at the front of the peloton. “It’s a mental breed,” said Obiri, like “you never know” when it really starts. “You have to be ready,” she said. “If it moves 27 km, you are ready; if [she moves at] 40K, you are ready.
Obiri, bronze medalist in Paris, was ready in the last stages of the race. But Chepkirui was too. After a hard kick, Chepkirui finished only 15 seconds ahead of Obiri.
Obiri and Tola had raised the prospect of a faster race in New York; Tola described the course of the course he established last year as “cashable” on Thursday. “I think it is possible to run faster on this course,” he said, “whether it is now, or in the future.”
Sunday was not the day. Tola de Tola’s male course record, and the Margaret Okayo 2:22:31 women’s course of women’s course, which takes place in 2003, is still held.
Hundreds of thousands of people bordered the streets of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Bronx to applaud while around 50,000 runners sailed on Sunday in the city, attacking what is largely considered to be the Marathon more difficult.
Three American men and women each made the first 10.
The training partners Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, who also made the Top 10 in Paris, finished sixth and seventh in the male field, respectively; CJ Albertson, the best American finisher in Chicago only three weeks ago, and Boston, in the spring, finished 10th.
Sarah Vaughn, forced by the disease to abandon Chicago last month, rebounded to finish sixth in the field of women, as the best American. Jessica McClain and Kellyn Taylor were near behind, respectively in eighth and 10th.
Two Americans also finished first in wheelchair races for the first time, Daniel Romanchuk holding David Weir in Great Britain in the male field; And Susannah Scaroni winning women with a 10 -minute lead. Marcel Hug, who had won 16 consecutive consecutive wheelchair marathons, saw his sequence end.
The bridges serve as tents of this marathon. The athletes start on the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge, crossing Brooklyn; Arrive in Queens via Pulaski, halfway; And browse the Queensborough, while they hit Manhattan at Mile 16 and the course becomes really hard. Two others follow, in a biblier a mile across the Bronx.
New York’s difficult ascents invited the comparison with the Olympic course this summer. 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 way, New York is more rolling. The hills continue to come until the end.
“I am a good hill runner,” said Mantz before the race, noting the two important advances in New York in the second half. “If I execute properly to this point, then I think it will play my strength.”
Young had always been “intimidated” by New York. “I am a guy from Chicago”, after finishing seventh in the Windy City last year, with a personal record. “Keep it dish, let’s keep it quickly.”
But this year, and the Olympic Games have changed his thought. Young finished ninth in Paris, just 44 seconds from his personal record, despite the elevation. “I left with great confidence,” Young at the Guardian told Young this week.
“I am a resilient runner. The worst, the better, “he said. “I used to be afraid of the hills, but now I think a little, as, to make it hot, to make it wet, to make it miserable, to rain, to make it cold, to make it hilly, to do what You want – because I mentally know that I can manage it better than anyone. »»
The New York Marathon, organized by New York Road Runners, has been a long way since its inception in 1970. That year, 127 athletes lined up on the starting line and only 55 finished.
With Chicago, Berlin, Boston, London and Tokyo, New York is one of the six world marathons. During the Sunday race, however, the organizers confirmed a seventh: Sydney will join next year.
Linden is a double 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 50 km. She ran to New York four times before.
This weekend, she was back. Linden, 41, has nothing more to prove. But the thrill of competition – and the New York challenge – attracted it to another starting line. She was awarded 11th place, less than five minutes before.
“You never know how the race will play,” Linden told Guardian in September. “Everything can happen.”
