NYC Marathon returns: Chebet, Lokedi of Kenya win in debuts

Evans Chebet of Kenya has won the New York City Marathon men’s race and Sharon Lokedi of Kenya won the women’s race, both of them making a splash in their debuts.

Daniel Do Nascimento, who had been leading the entire men’s race, collapsed 21 miles in. Chebet finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 41 seconds, which was 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Shura Kitata of Ethiopia.

Do Nascimento got out to a fast start on a unseasonably warm day and led by nearly 2 minutes for most of the race. The Brazilian collapsed at Mile 21, right before he got back into Manhattan, and was attended to by medical professionals. A few miles earlier, he had taken a quick 20-second bathroom break.

Chebet, 33, pulled away from the pack chasing Do Nascimento as they headed over the bridge into Manhattan for the first time. After Do Nascimento’s collapse, Chebet took the lead and never was threatened the rest of the way. Chebet won the Boston Marathon earlier this year.

It was Lokedi’s first-ever marathon and she finished in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds — just ahead of Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel. The 28-year-old Lokedi was in a tight race before she pulled ahead of Chemtai Salpeter in the final two miles to win by seven seconds and finish about 50 seconds off the course record.

An hour earlier, the men’s and women’s wheelchair races ended with course records being broken.

Marcel Hug of Switzerland was victorious in the men’s wheelchair race for the fifth time, tying Kurt Fearnley for most-ever victories in that event. Hug finished the 26.2-mile course that goes through all five boroughs of New York in 1 hour, 25 minutes and 26 seconds to break the previous mark of 1:29.22 set by Fearnley of Australia in 2006.

Hug, who also won the race last year, earned $50,000 for besting the course record. He crossed the finish line more than 2 minutes ahead of second-place finisher Daniel Romanchuk of Illinois.

Susannah Scaroni also broke the course record in the women’s wheelchair race, finishing in 1:42.43. That was 21 seconds better than the old mark, which was held by Tatyana McFadden.

Scaroni, a 31-year-old from Illinois, pulled away from the field early and also earned the bonus money for topping the course record. She beat runner-up Manuela Schar of Switzerland by 2 1/2 minutes, and last year’s winner, Madison de Rozario of Australia, finished third.

Scaroni won the Chicago Marathon last month and was victorious for the first time in New York after finishing third in 2019.

The 36-year-old Hug, nicknamed the “The Silver Bullet,” has been on quite a streak, winning four gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympics last year as well as the Tokyo, Berlin, London and Chicago Marathons in 2022.

It was an unseasonably warm day — with the temperature expected to soar into the 70s and possibly challenge the record for the hottest race since the marathon moved to November in 1986.

This was the first time that the marathon was back to full capacity since the pandemic.