Making her NYC Marathon debut, Kenyan Sheila Chepkirui captures the women’s title
In near perfect weather for a long distance race, with clear sunny skies and temperatures rising to the mid-50s, Sheila Chepkirui held off defending champion and fellow Kenyan Hellen Obiri in the final mile of Sunday’s TCS NYC Marathon to capture the professional women’s title. In another dramatic finish, the race came down to a battle of wills and kicks between Chepkirui and Obiri.
“Let me push the last mile, let me give it my best,” Chepkirui said. “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.” Chepkirui managed to outkick Obiri to open up an insurmountable lead in the last 200 meters and win by 14 seconds in 2:24:35.
Predominantly a middle distance runner for most of her career, it was the 33-year-old Chepkirui’s first time running the New York race and she began running marathons in 2022. It was also her first win at a World Marathon Major, which also includes the Boston, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Sydney and Berlin marathons.
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While Obiri was the pre-race favorite, Chepkirui came into the race with the fastest personal best in the field at 2:17:29, which she ran at the 2022 Valencia Marathon. Obiri, who finished in 2:24:49, was looking to be the first repeat champion since Mary Keitany of Kenya won three in a row from 2014 to 2016.
Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya took third place in 2:25:21, giving the African nation the top three spots. The top American women’s finisher, Sara Vaughn, finished in sixth place after dropping out of the lead pack when the runners entered the Bronx at mile 20. Vaughn was a late addition to the NYC Marathon roster after COVID-19 prevented her from running the Chicago Marathon three weeks ago.
Susannah Scaroni crushes women’s wheelchair race
Susannah Scaroni blew past the competition to win the Women’s Wheelchair Division race by the biggest margin in the 20-year history of the event. Scaroni won in 1:48.05, beating fellow American Tatyana McFadden who finished in 1:58:47 by more than 10 minutes. Manuela Schar of Switzerland rounded out the top three winners finishing in 1:59:20.
While the race has had five different winners in the last five years, Scaroni became a two-time winner, also taking the race in 2022. “Always so special to be here in New York City,” Scaroni said.
“I woke up feeling great today, never take it for granted. Coming up the last hill we had a tailwind today. So I had a little more energy than I normally do at that hill.”
With Daniel Romanchuk’s win in the Men’s Wheelchair race the USA swept the wheelchair division, a marathon first, and Scaroni and Romanchuk became the first pair of U.S. athletes to win the NYC Marathon wheelchair division races.
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