Different tactics net victories in New York City Marathon
Tola sets course record in men's race while Obiri outkicks Gidey in tactical women's contest
It was a tale of two races in the New York City Marathon on Sunday as Ethiopian Tamirat Tola set a course record in winning the men’s division and Kenyan Hellen Obiri won a tactical women’s race after surging away from her closest competitor in the final minute of the contest.
The 32-year-old Tola ran 2 hours 4 minutes 58 seconds to lower the course record of 2:05:06 set by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in 2011. He also finished nearly two minutes in front of second-place Albert Korir of Kenya, who ran a personal best of 2:06:57.
The 33-year-old Obiri timed 2:27:23 to win the women’s race by six seconds over runner-up Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia. Although the time was the slowest winning performance by a woman in the New York City Marathon since 2010, Obiri’s victory followed a win in the Boston Marathon in April to make her the first woman since Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen in 1989 to win the Boston and New York City marathons in the same year.
The top men’s and women’s runners ran cautiously for the first 10 kilometers of their respective races, but while the pace in the men’s contest picked up shortly after that, the leading women did not start to run fast — by their standards — until there were less than seven kilometers left in the 42.2-kilometer (26-mile 385-yard) race.
Tola, who had won the marathon in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, last year, was part of a large lead pack that came through the first 10 kilometers in 30:40 in the men’s elite race, which started 25 minutes after the women’s.
However, that lead group had been reduced to Tola and countryman Yemal Yimer, Korir, Zoyhair Talbi of Morocco, and Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands when they came through 20 kilometers in 59:34 following a second 10k split of 28:54.
After passing though the halfway mark in 1:02:45, the lead pack was down to Tola, Yimer, and Korir when that trio came through the 25 kilometers in 1:14:15 and it had been reduced to Tola and Yimer when that pair passed 30 kilometers in 1:28:22 after running the previous five-kilometer segment of the race in 14:07.
Yimer, fourth in the half marathon in the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, on Oct. 1, ran with Tola for a while longer. But Tola had opened up a small gap on Yimer an hour and a half into the race and he was seven seconds ahead of him when he came through the 20-mile mark in 1:34:38.
Tola had a 45-second advantage over second-place Yimer when he passed the 35-kilometer mark in 1:42:51. His projected final time was 2:04:00 based on his split for that point in the race, but the course in New York City is not a flat and fast layout such as those in London, Berlin, and Chicago, and Tola slowed to a 15:17 split from the 35- to 40-kilometer marks after clocking 14:29 from 30 to 35 kilometers.
Nonetheless, he had a lead of a minute and 58 seconds over second-place Korir at that point in the race and he added a second to his advantage during the final 2.2 kilometers of the contest.
Shura Kitata of Ethiopia finished third in 2:07:11, followed by Olympic silver medalist Nageeye in 2:10:21, Koen Naert of Belgium in 2:10:25, and World Championship silver medalist Maru Teferi of Israel in 2:10:28. Yimer placed ninth in 2:11:31.
Tola’s victory was his first in a World Marathon Majors race and came 10 weeks after he had dropped out of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, because of stomach issues. His win also followed fourth-place finishes in the New York City Marathon in 2018 and ’19.
“I am happy to win the New York City Marathon for the first time,” Tola said in a World Athletics post. “It's the third time for me to participate, after two times finishing fourth. Now, I'm happy.”
He also said in a post-race interview on ESPN2 that winning his first title in a World Marathon Majors “is very, very, very important for me.”
While Obiri’s performance was not comparable to Tola’s on a statistical level, it was exciting and significant as it came against a very good field that included Gidey, the world-record holder in the women’s 10,000 meters and half marathon; Brigid Kosgei of Kenya, the third-fastest female marathon runner in history with a best of 2:14:04; and defending champion Sharon Lokedi of Kenya.
Although Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya had withdrawn from the women’s race on Saturday due to a calf injury she sustained in a recent workout, the women’s contest was still expected to be a fast affair when it started.
The quality of the field was so good that the course record of 2:22:31 set by Margaret Okayo of Kenya in 2003 seemed to be in jeopardy.
However, the pace lagged from the start as the first five kilometers was passed in 17:23 and the split at 10 kilometers was 34:35.
Things got even slower over the next 20 kilometers as Obiri, who was always amongst a lead pack that varied from 11 to 13 women, ran consecutive 5k splits of 17:52, 17:51, 18:18, and 18:29 from the 10- through 30-kilometer marks.
There were still nine women in the lead pack, including first-place Kellyn Taylor of the U.S., two hours into the race and not much had changed when the front group went through 35 kilometers in 2:04:46 after running the previous five kilometers in 17:38.
The pace began to quicken about five minutes later when Kenyan Viola Cheptoo moved to the front, followed by Gidey and Obiri, with Lokedi another two seconds behind them. But Lokedi and Kosgei had joined the leading trio four minutes later.
Lokedi, who won last year’s race in her marathon debut, Obiri, and Gidey were clear of everyone else two hours and 20 minutes into the race and they ran as a closely-packed trio for the next five and a half minutes.
Lokedi began to fall back at that point and 30 seconds later, at the 2:26:00 mark, Obiri really began to pump her arms as she picked up the pace further.
Gidey, who had defeated Obiri by eight-hundredths of a second in winning the 10,000 in the World Championships last year, glanced behind her shortly after that before gradually losing ground to her hard-driving Kenyan rival, who ran the final mile of the race in 4:52.
Obiri was all smiles as she crossed the finish line in 2:27:23, followed by Gidey in 2:27:29, Lokedi in 2:27:33, Kosgei in 2:27:45, Mary Ngugi of Kenya in 2:27:53, and Cheptoo in 2:28:11.
Obiri, a two-time World champion at 5,000 meters on the track, had finished a disappointing sixth in her marathon debut in New York City last year.
“It’s my honor to be here for the second time,” Obiri said in a World Athletics post. “My debut here was terrible for me. Sometimes you learn from your mistakes, so I did a lot of mistakes last year and I said I want to try to do my best.
“It was exciting for me to see Gidey was there. I said, This is like track again, like the World Championships in 2022.”
The New York City Marathon was the sixth and final World Marathon Majors race of the year.
The others were held in Tokyo in March, in Boston and London in April, in Berlin in September, and in Chicago last month.
Obiri and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands each won a pair of women’s titles in those marathons as the Dutchwoman was victorious in London and Chicago.
Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya was the only double winner on the men’s side, as he ran 2:01:25 in London before lowering the world record to 2:00:35 in Chicago.