Chepkirui reclaims New York City Marathon women's crown as Almgren wins on debut

Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya reclaimed the women’s title and Sweden’s Andreas Almgren won the men’s race at the New York City Marathon on Sunday. Chepkirui secured her second New York victory while Almgren took the men’s race in his marathon debut.

Almgren was making his debut at 26.2 miles after a successful career running half marathons and the 10,000m, and he finished in two hours, six minutes and one second. He pulled away from Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy in the final mile; Crippa finished 13 seconds behind. Kamohelo Mofolo of Lesotho finished third, edging out defending champion Benson Kipruto.

Almgren hung with a crowded lead pack over the demanding, hilly course and moved clear late, pulling away from the defending champion Kipruto with one mile left. By the final meters he had built a comfortable lead and jogged across the line, waving his arms to the crowd. "I’ve probably never felt so emotional after a race ever," Almgren said.

Almgren described how the race developed for him in the closing stages, saying: "With 5k left I felt like I had the legs today … I saw I had a pretty big gap [near the end of the race] and thought: ‘OK, just enjoy these last few hundred meters’, because this is not something a lot of people get to experience." He also said: "This is my first marathon. I didn’t know how I was supposed to feel."

Chepkirui, who also won the race in 2024, pulled away from compatriot Hellen Obiri in the final 150m to claim victory in 2:24.36. "The last mile was really tricky, I knew I had to be patient because Hellen was really strong so I had to really push up to the finish line," she said. "I am so happy."

American Jessica McClain finished second in the women’s race, passing Obiri – a two-time winner – in the final few strides and finishing six seconds behind Chepkirui; it was the first time a US woman has placed in the top three since 2018. McClain said: "It was a really fun, magical day out there." She added: "I really didn’t feel great through 18 miles. I just had to stick with it. I don’t really know what happened but I couldn’t be happier right now."

Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair race for the eighth time, edging Daniel Romanchuk by just over a second after Romanchuk made a move to take the lead in the last mile as the pair entered Central Park; Hug passed him in the final stretch. Catherine Debrunner pulled away early to win the women’s wheelchair race in 1:40:02, the second-fastest time in race history and about 30 seconds slower than her own mark from 2023. Two-time defending champion Susannah Scaroni finished third, three months after giving birth to her first child, more than eight minutes behind Debrunner.

The race ran through all five boroughs for the 50th time. There were just over 2,000 competitors in the seventh running of the race, including just 88 women, and about 60,000 runners stepped up to the starting line on Sunday, with nearly half of them women.