60,000 runners cross finish line at 50th NYC Marathon

Andreas Almgren of Sweden won his first New York City Marathon on Sunday, marking a personal milestone in his transition from half-marathon racing to the full 26.2 miles. Almgren secured the title in a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 1 second. He overtook Italian runner Yemaneberhan Crippa in the final mile to take the lead. Crippa crossed the finish line 13 seconds later to finish second. Kamohelo Mofolo of Lesotho placed third, finishing just ahead of the defending champion, Benson Kipruto.

The race marked the 50th edition of the event. The New York City Marathon began in 1970 as a loop around Central Park. Organizers moved the course out of the park for the 1976 race to coincide with the U.S. bicentennial. That change helped establish the event as a major international competition. In 1976, fewer than 2,000 people competed, with only 88 women in the field. Sunday's event saw about 60,000 runners start the race, with nearly half of the participants being women.

Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won the women's race for the second time. She defeated her countrywoman Hellen Obiri in the final 150 meters. Chepkirui finished with a time of 2 hours, 24 minutes and 36 seconds. American Jessica McClain took second place, passing Obiri in the final strides. McClain finished six seconds behind the winner. Her result made her the first American woman to finish in the top three since 2018. Zouhair Talbi finished sixth in the men's race, setting a new record for the fastest time by a U.S. runner in the event's history.

Runners from more than 140 countries participated in Sunday's race. The course included a minor adjustment not seen in 15 years. Officials altered the route at Mile 20 in the Bronx to reduce the number of turns from seven to five. The change aimed to ease street closures in that area of the city. The top seven men all posted times that rank among the ten fastest in the course's history.

In the wheelchair categories, Marcel Hug of Sweden won the men's race for the eighth time. He passed Daniel Romanchuk in the final 100 meters to claim the victory. Hug finished just over a second ahead of his rival. Catherine Debrunner, also from Sweden, won the women's wheelchair race. She set the second-fastest time in the event's history, finishing in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 2 seconds. Two-time defending champion Susannah Scaroni finished third, more than eight minutes behind Debrunner, just three months after giving birth to her first child.