NEW YORK – With clear skies and a slight chill in the air with temperatures in the mid-40s, the TCS New York City marathon’s 53rd edition got underway at 8 a.m., with the blaring of Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ in the background, along with 50,000 runners ready to break across the starting line.
Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, who won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, took the men’s professional title in 2:07:39, outlasting the 2022 champion Evans Chebet of Kenya by six seconds with a final push during the last quarter mile of the race.
Albert Korir, the 2021 winner, finished in third.
Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, the defending champion in setting the course record and marathon gold medalist in Paris, finished off the podium in fourth.
Connor Mantz and Clayton Young, who train together in Utah, finished sixth and seventh, respectively. CJ Albertson was the third American in the top 10, completing his race in 2:10.57 in 10th.
In the women’s professional race, a trio of Kenyan women stayed close with two miles left, but Sheila Chepkirui had the final kick as they came into Central Park, crossing the finish line first in 2:24:35, beating defending champion Hellen Obiri by 14 seconds.
Vivian Cheruiyot came in third. It’s the sixth consecutive time, not including the 2020 race, which was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic, that Kenya has won the women’s professional race.
Sara Vaughn was the top American woman finisher, coming in seventh in 2:26:56. Jessica McClain (2:27:19) was eighth, and Kellyn Taylor (2:27:59) finished in 10th.
Nageeye and Chepkirui collected a $100,000 prize for their victories.
Americans sweep the wheelchair races; Daniel Romanchuk upsets six-time champion Marcel Hug
Last year, Switzerland took home the crown in the wheelchair events. This year, the United States did the sweeping, the first in the race’s history that Americans won both the men’s and women’s events.
A four-man pack of Hug, Romanchuk, Tomoki Suzuki, and David Weir stayed within a minute of each other through the first half of the race. But Hug, nicknamed the ‘Silver Bullet,’ who has won this race three consecutive years, is the reigning Paralympic champion and had won 16 consecutive marathons, shockingly fell back after it appeared that he and Weir clipped each other’s wheels and finished fourth.
With less than a mile from the finish, Romanchuk, Suzuki, and Weir were within a millisecond of each other, but Romanchuk went into high gear to win his third NYC marathon, and first since 2019, in 1:36:31. The 45-year-old Weir came in second, five seconds behind and Suzuki finished third, eight seconds off the pace.
Susannah Scaroni, the 2022 champion, raced out to a 26-second lead after three miles in the women’s wheelchair race, increased the lead to more than two minutes after six, and blitzed the rest of the field, including passing some of the men’s wheelchair competitors, to win her second NYC marathon in 1:48:05, the fourth-largest winning margin in history. Four-time winner Tatyana McFadden (2010, 2013, 2014, and 2015) finished second, 10 minutes and 42 seconds behind Scaroni. Manuela Schar of Switzerland, a three-time NYC marathon winner (2017, 2018, and 2019), finished third.
‘Always so special to be here in New York City,’ Scaroni said after the race. ‘I woke up feeling great today, never take it for granted. Coming up the last hill, we had a tailwind today. So I had a little more energy than I normally do at that hill.’
Scaroni and Romanchuk each took home $35,000 for their victories.
Celebrity runners
Matt James, Zac Clark, and Joe Amabile, contestants on ‘The Bachelorette’
Tayshia Adams, The Bachelorette’
Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes, podcasters, former ‘Good Morning America’ anchors
Randall Park, actor, ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and ‘Always Be My Maybe’
Jennifer Connelly, actress, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’
Claire Holt, actress, ‘The Vampire Diaries,’ ‘Aquarius’
Jacob Soboroff, NBC News correspondent
By the numbers
$1: The first entry fee of the first New York City Marathon in 1970; 127 runners started and 55 finished that year.
20 – Therapy dogs on the course
4:39:47 – Average finishing time in 2023
148 – Countries represented
$315: Entry fee for runners for non-New York Road Runners members
43,000 – Bagels served
51,453 – Finishers in the 2023 marathon
