Sport
Kenyans Geoffrey Mutai and Priscah Jeptoo dominate the men and women’s events at the New York City Marathon
Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai wins the New York City Marathon. PHOTO/Mike Segar/Reuters
Geoffrey Mutai successfully defended his title Sunday, while fellow Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo came from behind to win the women’s race at the New York City Marathon.
Fans again packed the 43 kilometer (26.2 mile) course, undaunted by the events of the past year. The 2012 New York City Marathon was canceled because of the devastation of Superstorm Sandy.
After the bombings at April’s Boston Marathon, bomb-sniffing dogs roamed the course, and barricades limited access points to Central Park. A record 50,740 runners started the race through the five boroughs.
Mutai pulled away with about 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) to go and beat Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede by 52 seconds. On a windy morning, Mutai’s time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 24 seconds was well off his course record of 2:05:06 set in nearly perfect conditions 2 years ago. He’s the first man to repeat in New York since Kenya’s John Kagwe in 1997-98.
Kebede, the London Marathon champ, clinched the US$500,000 bonus for the World Marathon Majors title. South Africa’s Lusapho April was third.
Prisca Jeptoo trailed Buzunesh Deba by nearly 3½ minutes at the halfway point. But she started making her move as the race entered Manhattan and passed the Ethiopian with just over 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) to go.
Jeptoo, the 2012 Olympic silver medalist and 2013 London Marathon Champ, won in 2:25:07 to clinch the US$500,000 World Marathon Majors bonus.
The women’s race played out almost identically to the last New York City Marathon 2 years ago. But this time, Deba was the pursued, not the pursuer.
In 2011, Mary Keitany pulled away to a big early lead, and Deba and countrywomen Firehiwot Dado chased her down. Dado, who won that day, was 14th Sunday as the defending champ. This time, Deba and training partner Tigist Tufa separated themselves right from the start. Deba wound up finishing 48 seconds behind Jeptoo, while Tufa fell back to eighth.
Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia, the 2005-06 New York champ, placed third.
Security was tight from the moment the runners arrived on Staten Island. They were corralled into long bag-check lines, and officers and volunteers repeatedly reminded them to keep cellphones out.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press