Kenyan Woman Peres Jepchirchir wins women’s race at the NYC Marathon

In a beautifully dramatic finish to the women’s race at the New York City Marathon on Sunday, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya pulled away in the final meters to win, just three months following her gold win in the women’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics.

Jepchirchir finished in 2 hours 22 minutes 39 seconds, just four seconds ahead of Viola Cheptoo, also of Kenya.

(Cheptoo is the runner Bernard Lagat’s younger sister.) Ababel Yeshaneh of Ethiopia finished third. Molly Seidel, who won bronze at the Olympics in August, finished fourth as the top American.

The 28-year-old won the women’s race with a finish time of 2:22:39, while the men’s title went to Albert Korir, also of Kenya, in a time of 2:08:22.

She will take home a $100,000 first-place prize.

Jepchirchir made history as the first Olympic Marathon champion to win the race, just three months after she took home gold at the Tokyo games.”After I [won] the Olympic medal, I was not expecting to win,” Jepchirchir mentioned.

She finished just four seconds ahead of Viola Cheptoo, also of Kenya.

Around 30,000 athletes from across the globe gathered at the starting line at the Verrazzano Bridge in Staten Island for the return of the iconic, 26.2-mile race.

The Big Apple marathon — which is the world’s largest and typically draws about 50,000 runners — had been canceled last year over COVID-19 safety concerns.

Related Posts

About The Author

JOIN OUR MAIL LIST

Read Profiles. Get Inspired.