As the women’s portion of the New York City Marathon reached its final stages, three former champions were battling it out for a course record. Sharon Lokedi, Hellen Obiri and Sheila Chepkirui — the three most recent winners of the event — found themselves neck and neck with three miles to go and history on the line.
As the trio entered the final stretch, Chepkirui fell behind, making it a two-woman race. That’s when Obiri found her stride and pulled ahead, winning her second New York City marathon and breaking a course record in the process. With her time of 2:19:51, Obiri took down Margaret Okayo’s 2:22:31 record time, which stood for 22 years.
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It’s Obiri’s second win at the New York City Marathon. She also won the event in 2023. Obiri has also won the Boston Marathon twice and is a three-time Olympic medalist. She has two 5000m silver medals — which she won in 2016 and 2020 — and one bronze, which was won during the marathon event at the 2024 Olympics.
With three miles to go, it became apparent that the women’s portion of the marathon would be won by a former winner — and a Kenyan. Lokedi won the event in 2022 and Chepkirui took home the win last year.
While Obiri secured the victory, Lokedi and Chepkirui didn’t finish far behind. Lokedi finished with a time of 2:20:17. Chepkirui finished at 2:20:24. American Fiona O’Keeffe finished fourth with a 2:22:49 performance.
This story will be updated.