The 50th running of the New York City Marathon belongs to Kenya as Peres Jepchirchir won the pro women’s race while Albert Korir took the pro men’s title on Sunday morning.
Jepchirchir, of Kenya, became the first woman ever to win the New York City Marathon — her first title — and an Olympic gold medal after she won at the Tokyo Games earlier this year.
She did just enough to hold off a fellow Kenyan in Violet Cheptoo, who made her Marathon debut in style with a second-place finish — a remarkable showing considering she specializes as a middle-distance runner.
Jepchirchir finished in 2:22:39 while Cheptoo, who is the sister of world champion and Olympic medalist Bernard Lagat, finished just 4.86 seconds behind.
Rounding out the women’s pro top three was Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh, who was 13 seconds behind Jepchirchir.
The top American, Molly Seidel, wasn’t too far behind she set a New York City Marathon women’s course record for a runner born in the United States. Her time of 2:24:42 was good for fourth-place in a brilliant showing that is the latest feather in the cap of a runner who rose to fame at the Tokyo Games by taking bronze in the marathon.
There was not as much drama surrounding the men’s pro marathon as Korir took the 2021 title by 44 seconds.
The 27-year-old took the next step in his long-distance running career after he finished second in the 2019 NYC Marathon. It adds to major international victories at the Vienna City Marathon in 2017 and the Houston Marathon two years ago.
His time in New York at 2:08:33 was a fraction off of his personal best, which came in Ottawa in 2019 when he posted a 2:08:03 marathon.
In second-place, Morocco’s Mohamed El Aaraby earned an impressive first piece of silverware in his marathon career. After winning gold in the half marathon at the 2018 Mediterranean Games, El Aaraby shifted to full marathons where he went from not completing the race at the 2019 World Championships to finishing 11th in the marathon at the Tokyo Olympics to now winning silver in New York.
Italian Eyob Faniel, who won the marathon at the 2018 European Championships, finished third while American Elkanah Kibet — a financial management technician in the United States Army — finished fourth.
