Almgren wins NYC Marathon debut; Chepkirui claims second title

Andreas Almgren of Sweden won the men’s New York City Marathon in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 1 second on Sunday. The 26-year-old claimed the victory in his debut at 26.2 miles, pulling away from Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa in the final mile. Crippa finished 13 seconds behind Almgren, while Lesotho’s Kamohelo Mofolo took third place ahead of defending champion Benson Kipruto.

Almgren’s winning time ranked as the third fastest in the course’s 50-year history. The top seven finishers all placed within the top 10 all-time marks for the event. Almgren became the first marathoner to win his debut in the race since Ethiopia’s Gebre Gebremariam in 2010. American Zouhair Talbi finished sixth, setting the fastest time ever recorded by a U.S. runner in the competition.

Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won the women’s race in 2:24:36, securing her second title after a 2024 victory. She separated from Hellen Obiri in the final 150 meters to take the lead. Jessica McClain of the United States finished second, passing Obiri in the final strides to finish 6 seconds behind Chepkirui. McClain’s performance marked the first time a U.S. woman placed in the top three since 2018.

The event marked the 50th time the marathon has run through all five boroughs of New York. Approximately 60,000 participants started the race on Sunday, with nearly half being women. Runners from more than 140 countries competed, including Kipruto, who won the previous year’s race by a margin of three-hundredths of a second over Alexander Mutiso.

The race course saw a minor adjustment at Mile 20 in the Bronx for the first time in 15 years. Organizers altered the route to reduce the number of turns in the borough from seven to five, aiming to ease street closures. In the wheelchair division, Marcel Hug won the men’s race for the eighth time, edging Daniel Romanchuk by just over a second. Hug passed Romanchuk in the final 100 meters after the Canadian moved into the lead in the last mile.

Catherine Debrunner of Sweden won the women’s wheelchair race in 1:40:02. Her time was the second-fastest in the race’s history, trailing her own record from 2023 by about 30 seconds. Susannah Scaroni, the two-time defending champion, finished third more than eight minutes behind Debrunner, three months after giving birth to her first child.