Kenya's Hellen Obiri, Benson Kipruto win New York City Marathon

The two former New York City Marathon winners hung a right on Central Park South Sunday morning, two Kenyan women running together up the street, looking to separate from each other and create another memorable finishing scene in the park.

Sharon Lokedi, the 2022 champ, was barely in front of the 2023 winner, Hellen Obiri. They had already separated a bit the mile before from another Kenyan, 2024 winner Sheila Chepkirui. Suddenly, Obiri made her move on this marathon’s final mile, bursting free. Then she hung another right by Columbus Circle into Central Park for the stretch run.

The crowd lined the barriers, sending cheers in the air amid the colorful leaves dotting the landscape. And there was Obiri, finishing the 26.2-mile, five-borough journey first in the professional women’s division and eclipsing the women’s course record that had stood for 22 years, breaking the tape in two hours, 19 minutes and 51 seconds.

“When we went about 1K to go, I felt like I was so strong,” Obiri said. “I say, Can I make a move, because I feel like I had something left in the tank. … I’m so happy to break the course record.”

The Kenyans finished one, two, three — Obiri, Lokedi (2:20:07) and Chepkirui (2:20:24). They all passed the 2003 course record of 2:22:31 set by Kenya’s Margaret Ikayo on this perfect weather day for 55,000-plus people to be participating. But the 2025 New York City Marathon wasn’t just about the greatness of the Kenyan women. Kenyan men finished one, two, three, too.

After Obiri won, two of those men - whose race started a half hour after the women - were traveling that same stretch run to the same soundtrack amid the same colorful autumn scheme.

Benson Kipruto was running ahead of Alexander Mutiso, looking like he was going to win with some room to spare. Mutiso then turned up the temperature with a late sprint, and they nearly broke the tape at the same time.

But it was Kipruto who crossed first in his New York City Marathon debut — by three hundredths of a second, the closest margin for the men’s race here ever. His time was 2:08:09. Albert Korir came in third.

“I was aware that Mutiso was behind, and it was so close, and I knew because I know Mutiso also is a strong guy,” Kipruto said. “I’ve been running with him also in the Paris Olympics. So I knew it was going to be a tight race.

“But I never [lost] hope up through the last stages of the race.”

Kipruto started running as a kid in Kenya, heading to and from school, which wasn’t around the corner from his village. If he decided to head home for lunch, his tab came to about 10 miles of school-related running per day.

Now he’s 34 and owns a history of running success, adding this marathon win to those in Boston, Chicago and Tokyo.

“I’m so happy to have my fourth win of a major marathon,” Kipruto said. “I think that there’s no secret in winning and finishing on the podium — just believe in yourself and have patience and believe in training, what you are doing.”

His prize was $100,000. The same went to Obiri. The 35-year-old former Boston Marathon winner also earned a $50,000 bonus for her course record.

Besides the Kenyan competitors, the American women shined, claiming four of the top nine spots.

Fiona O’Keeffe led that group, arriving fourth in her debut here. The 27-year-old former Stanford All-American set the record for an American women’s trip around the course at 2:22:49.

She led after 12 miles and was still only 42 hundredths of a second off Obiri’s lead through 19 miles.

“It’s really exciting,” O’Keeffe said of topping the U.S. women with that record pace. “I can’t take too much credit for the time because that was all on the women ahead of me.”

Joel Reichow came in at 2:09:56, good for sixth, which led three American finishers among the top 10 men.

“I've been a little bit under the radar for a while,” Reichow said. “So [I was] just kind of putting in work year after year and slowly putting it together.”

Wheelchair winners

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug extended his New York City Marathon record by taking the professional men’s wheelchair division for the seventh time, winning in 1:30:16. And Susannah Scaroni repeated as the champ and won for the third time in four years in the women’s division. The Illinois resident finished in 1:42:10.