2019 New York City Marathon

In the women's race, 2018 winner Mary Keitany and half-marathon world record holder Joyceline Jepkosgei were favorites. Keitany was a four-time winner of the race, but Jepkosgei had never run a marathon race before.[4] Also racing was 2018 Boston Marathon winner Des Linden,[5] 2019 Boston Marathon winner Worknesh Degefa, and 2019 Tokyo Marathon winner Ruti Aga.[6] The men's field included three sub-2:06 runners; Tamirat Tola, Lelisa Desisa, and Shura Kitata, all of whom are from Ethiopia.[6] Desisa was the favorite, however, having won the 2013 and 2015 Boston Marathon, and the 2018 New York City Marathon. 2017 winner Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya also raced.[5]

In the wheelchair race, the men's favorite was 20-year-old Daniel Romanchuk who had won the 2018 edition, 2019 Chicago Marathon, 2019 Boston Marathon, and the 2019 London Marathon. Also racing were David Weir, Ernst Van Dyk, and Marcel Hug, all previous winners of the race.[7] In the women's wheelchair race, the favorite was Manuela Schär who had won the last six World Marathon Majors in a row. She faced stiffest competition from Americans Tatyana McFadden, Amanda McGrory, and Susannah Scaroni.[7]

The wheelchair race started at 8:30 EST (UTC-5), the women's race at 9:10 EST and the men's race at 9:40 EST.[8] The winner of the men and women's races won $100,000 each, the winners of the wheelchair races won $25,000 and a prize of $25,000 was given to the fastest man and woman from the Unites States.[9] The temperature on the day of the race was an ideal 45 °F (7 °C).[10]

In the women's wheelchair race, Schär took an early lead and won with little competition from the other athletes in a time of 1:44:20.[11][12] McFadden and Scaroni finished second and third in 1:48:19 and 1:51:37, respctively.[13] The men's wheelchair race, on the other hand, was much more tightly contested. Romanchuk pulled away early on and had put a 20 second gap between himself and Hug at the 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) mark, but this was reduced to nine seconds at 10 kilometres (6.2 mi).[12] They went through 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) in 31:11 side-by-side and at halfway were both over a minute ahead of the chasing group comprising Weir and Aaron Pike.[12] At 25 kilometres (16 mi) the gap had been brought down to 50 seconds and 10 kilometres later, the two groups had joined up.[12] Once again, Romanchuk was able to get clear of the rest, and crossed the finish line in first place just one second ahead of Hug, as was the case the previous year.[11] Romanchuk finished in 1:37:24, Hug in 1:37:25, Weir finished three seconds behind in 1:37:28, and Pike finished 5 seconds behind in 1:37:33.[14]

In the women's race Linden broke away from the leading pack and had built up a 15 second gap by 8 miles (13 km) which extended to 31 seconds by mile 11, but she was later caught by a pack of four before the halfway mark. American Sara Hall dropped out with a stomach illness after 18 miles (29 km).[4][15] At 20 miles (32 km) into the race, Keitany and Jepkosgei were together,[9] but 3 miles (4.8 km) later, Jepkosgei began to pull away and had put a four second gap between the two.[4] The lead further increased to 16 seconds by mile 25 and she eventually finished in a time of 2:22:38, 54 seconds ahead of Keitany who finished second.[4] Ruti Aga finished third in a time of 2:25:51.[15] This time is the second fastest on the course, behind the 2003 performance by Margaret Okayo. She was also the youngest winner, at the age of 25, since Okayo won in 2001.[4] Sinead Diver, at 42-years-old, was the oldest woman to finish in the top five since Priscilla Welch won in 1987.[16] Jepkosgei, in addition to the $100,000 of prize money, also earned $45,000 for finishing in under 2:23:00.[15] Linden won the prize for fastest American, finishing sixth in 2:26:26.[15]

In the men's race, Desisa dropped out after 7 miles (11 km) due to tightness in his hamstring. ABC News suggested that the cause was his "taxing" victory in the marathon event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar just 29 days earlier.[17][18] The leading group went through 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in 30:32, and halfway in 1:04:49, with fourteen still present.[19] Brett Robinson broke away from the pack and led through mile 15 in 1:14:13, but was caught within the next mile. The group had dwindled to just five runners when they reached mile 20 in 1:38:59; Kamworor, Girma Bekele Gebre, Albert Korir, Kitata, and Tola.[19] The group further broke up and Kamworor eventually left Korir in the 24th mile and was able to win the race in 2:08:13.[10] Korir finished in second with a time of 2:08:36.[19] Girma Bekele Gebre, an unsponsored Ethiopian who did not start with the elite runners instead starting with the open field, finished in third place in 2:08:38. He looked "bewildered" standing next to the two other podium finishers. He also came to the race with no agent, and had stayed with a friend in The Bronx.[16] Jared Ward won the prize for the top American, finishing sixth in 2:10:45.[16]

Results

• TCS New York City Marathon 2019. New York Road Runners. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
• New York Marathon Results. NBC Sports. Retrieved 2020-05-05.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2019 New York City Marathon.

• New York Road Runners website
• "2019 New York City Marathon collected news and commentary". The New York Times.