Evans Chebet won the New York City Marathon men’s race Sunday, adding the victory to his triumph at the Boston Marathon earlier this year, and Sharon Lokedi won the women’s race as the pair of Kenyan runners made a splash in their Big Apple debuts.
Chebet finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 41 seconds — 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Shura Kitata of Ethiopia — to become the first man since Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 to sweep the pair of prestigious 26.2-mile races. Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands was third in 2:10:31.
Daniel Do Nascimento, who had been leading the entire men’s race, collapsed 21 miles in. Do Nascimento got out to a fast start on a unseasonably warm day and led by nearly 2 minutes for most of the race. The Brazilian runner collapsed at Mile 21, right before he got back into Manhattan, and was attended to by medical professionals. A few miles earlier, he had taken a quick 20-second bathroom break.
Chebet, 33, pulled away from the pack chasing Do Nascimento as they headed over the bridge into Manhattan for the first time. After Do Nascimento’s collapse, Chebet took the lead and never was threatened the rest of the way.
Lokedi finished her first-ever marathon in 2:23:23, just ahead of Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel. The 28-year-old Lokedi was in a tight race before she pulled away from Chemtai Salpeter in the final two miles to win by seven seconds and finish about 50 seconds off the course record.
An hour earlier, the men’s and women’s wheelchair races ended with course records being broken.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland was victorious in the men’s wheelchair race for the fifth time, shattering the course record and tying Kurt Fearnley for most victories in that event.
Hug finished the course that goes through all five boroughs of New York in 1:25:26 to break the previous mark of 1:29:22 set by Fearnley of Australia in 2006. Hug, who also won the race last year, earned $50,000 for besting the course record. He crossed the finish line more than 2 minutes ahead of second-place finisher Daniel Romanchuk of Illinois.
Susannah Scaroni also broke the course record in the women’s wheelchair race, finishing in 1:42.43. That was 21 seconds better than the old mark, which was held by Tatyana McFadden.
A 31-year-old from Illinois, Scaroni pulled away from the field early and also earned the bonus money for topping the course record. She beat runner-up Manuela Schar of Switzerland by 2½ minutes. Last year’s winner, Madison de Rozario of Australia, finished third.
Scaroni won the Chicago Marathon last month and was victorious for the first time in New York after finishing third in 2019.
The 36-year-old Hug, nicknamed “The Silver Bullet,” has been on quite a streak, winning four gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics last year as well as the Tokyo, Berlin, London and Chicago Marathons in 2022.
It was an unseasonably warm day, with the temperature expected to soar into the 70s and possibly challenge the record for the hottest race since the marathon moved to November in 1986.
This was the first time that the marathon was at full capacity since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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