Kenyan Runs First Marathon and Wins

Kenyans Evans Chebet and Sharon Lokedi made huge splashes in their New York City Marathon debuts on Sunday. Chebet won the men's race and Lokedi the women's race in her first-ever marathon on an unseasonably warm day, with temperatures in the 70s making the race one of the hottest since the marathon was moved to November in 1986. Chebet finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 41 seconds, the AP reports, which was 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Shura Kitata of Ethiopia. Lokedi, 28, finished in 2:23.23—just ahead of Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel. "I'm really excited, just so happy that I did it here," Lokedi said. "The people out there, the course was amazing, the cheers, everything. I'm just thankful."

There was a scary moment in the men's race when Daniel Do Nascimento, who had been leading the entire way, collapsed 21 miles in. Race officials said later that he was OK. Chebet, 33, saw Do Nascimento on the ground and later said he "felt bad for him, but had to continue to race." He said through a translator that Do Nascimento was keeping a fast pace. After Do Nascimento's collapse, Chebet took the lead and wasn't threatened the rest of the way. Chebet won the Boston Marathon earlier this year. "Boston was actually harder, and it prepared him for the win for New York," the translator said for Chebet. The victory continued a drought for American men in the race: No runner from the US has won since 2009.

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, tying Kurt Fearnley for most-ever victories in that event. Hug finished the 26.2-mile 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. "The conditions were great for us. A tail wind the first half," Hug, 36, said in discussing the record time. Susannah Scaroni, 31, also broke the course record in the women's wheelchair race, finishing in 1:42.43. She won the Chicago Marathon last month and was victorious for the first time in New York after finishing third in 2019.

(More New York City Marathon stories.)