First-Time Champions Win Marathon in Dramatic Finishes

Dramatic finishes marked the men's and women's races in the New York City Marathon on Sunday, with both first-time winners decisively pulling away from past champions at the end. Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands won the men's title in 2:07:39, USA Today reports. Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya took the women's at 2:24:35. In an upset, Daniel Romanchuk won the men's wheelchair race; fellow American Susannah Scaroni won the women's, per the AP. Under clear skies and with temperatures in the mid-40s, the 53rd version of the marathon—with a combined field of 50,000 competitors—launched at 8am to the loud soundtrack of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." Thousands cheered along the route; one sign read, "Run faster so we can go to brunch." Results and vignettes included:

• Women's race: "Let me push the last mile, let me give it my best," Chepkirui said she was thinking as she pulled away from Hellen Obiri, who won last year, in the final stretch. With about 600 meters left, she said, per the AP, "I saw Hellen wasn't coming, I knew I was going to win and was so happy." She won by 14 seconds.
• Men's race: Nageeye finished with a dramatic burst of speed in the last quarter-mile to defeat 2022 champion Evans Chebet by 6 seconds. "At the finish I was like, am I dreaming? I won New York," Nageeye said. It was his fourth New York City Marathon, after finishing third in 2022.
• Men's wheelchair race: Romanchuk, David Weir, Tomoki Suzuki, and Marcel Hug fought fiercely for position for most of the competition. At one point, it looked like Weir and Hug clipped each other's wheels. "We all know how we like to race, and we try to completely empty the tanks," said Romanchuk, who also won the race in 2018 and 2019. His winning time was 1:36:31.
• Women's wheelchair race: Scaroni led all the way, per the New York Times, and was more than 4½ minutes ahead at the midpoint. "I woke up feeling great today," said Scaroni, who also won in 2022. She finished in 1:48:05, nearly 11 minutes ahead of Tatyana McFadden.

• A 1-mile goal: Travis Friese took up running again in May to help him beat drug addiction after a 25-year layoff. "All it took was that first run for me to remember why I used to love running as a kid," he said. His plan Sunday was to make it a mile, walking some and running some, on the lower loop of Central Park. Instead, he completed the 1.7-mile loop, then did it again. Every such accomplishment, Friese said, proves to himself that he can set goals and reach them.
• Family outing: The Villavicencio family was represented Sunday by three generations. Rodrigo, 78, was running in his 20th New York City Marathon and was joined by his son, James, in his ninth, and his grandson Justin, in his debut. They keep together when they run. "We do it because we want to spend time together," James Villavicencio said, adding, "We have a rule: We don't leave anyone behind." Their extended family comes each year to cheer them on. Emily Villavicencio, Justin's sister, described what it's like when they spot James and Rodrigo in the crowd: "I feel like time slows down. We all hug each other, we take pictures. We're screaming. Papa loves to scream and then he gets everyone to scream."

(More New York City Marathon stories.)