Kenyans sweep NYC Marathon but Do Nascimento collapses in record heat
Evans Chebet of Kenya won the New York City Marathon men’s race and Sharon Lokedi of Kenya won the women’s race on Sunday, both of them making a splash in their debuts.
Daniel Do Nascimento, who had been leading the entire men’s race, collapsed around the 21-mile mark. Chebet finished in 2hr 8min 41sec, which was 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Shura Kitata of Ethiopia.
Do Nascimento got out to a fast start on an unseasonably warm day and led by nearly two minutes for most of the race. The Brazilian collapsed at Mile 21, just before he crossed back into Manhattan from the Bronx, and was attended to by medical staff. A few miles earlier, he had taken a 20-second bathroom break.
It was an unseasonably warm day in New York with the temperature hitting 74F (23C) in Central Park at 11am, just before the elite runners completed the course. That made it the hottest race since the marathon moved to November in 1986. The November average for New York City is 48F (9C). The previous November high for the New York City Marathon was set in 1993, when the mercury reached 70F, according to New York Road Runners, the race organizers.
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 was not threatened the rest of the way. Chebet won the Boston Marathon earlier this year.
It was Lokedi’s first-ever marathon and she finished 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 ahead of Chemtai Salpeter
in the final two miles to win by seven seconds, around 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, tying Kurt Fearnley for most-ever victories in the event. Hug finished 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 setting the course record. He crossed the finish line more than two 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. Scaroni, a 31-year-old from Illinois, 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 nearly three minutes, and 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 “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.
This was the first time that the marathon was back to full capacity since the pandemic.