Defending champion Abdi Nageeye and marathon icon Eliud Kipchoge lead the NN Running Team challenge at the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday (2 November) – the seventh and final stop on the 2025 Abbott World Marathon Majors circuit.
Nageeye has carved out a formidable record on the streets of New York and besides his momentous success in 2024, he has also finished fifth in 2021, third in 2022 and fourth in 2023.
The 36-year-old Dutchman, who claimed silver in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic marathon, appears to be improving with age and in April posted a national record of 2:04:20 to place fourth in the TCS London Marathon.
Nageeye will take on the challenge of running the five-borough New York classic hoping to become the first man to mount a successful defence of this title since Geoffrey Mutai in 2013.
Kipchoge, an 11-time Abbott World Marathon Majors winner – having previously triumphed in Berlin, London, Chicago and Tokyo – is all set for his debut appearance in the New York City Marathon.
The back-to-back Olympic marathon champion, who claimed gold medals at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, made history between those memorable successes when becoming the first man in history to run a sub-two-hour marathon as part of the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna.
In his most recent competitive appearance, the Kenyan marathon master placed ninth in the Sydney Marathon – the newest World Marathon Major.
In New York he will earn the coveted Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star Medal awarded to athletes who have finished the original six marathon majors.
Kipchoge said: “I’ve been training for major marathons for a very long time, and I have never completed all of them. If I don’t complete, I feel like I am halfway – I am not a rounded person,” he said.
“My legacy will be complete because I will have a sixth star.”