Kenyans Evans Chebet and Sharon Lokedi Win New York Marathon Titles
Kenyans Evans Chebet and Sharon Lokedi are this year's New York Marathon champions.
Chebet, who won the Boston Marathon in April, clocked two hours, eight minutes and 41 seconds to win the men's race, becoming the first man to win both races in the same year since his compatriot Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. This was the 33-year-old’s first appearance in New York.
Shura Kitata of Ethiopia placed second in 2:08:54 while Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye, the last year’s Olympic silver medalist, settled for third with a time of 2:10:31. Defending champion Albert Korir of Kenya finished eighth.
Chebet’s victory continued Kenyan domination in marathon majors this year, where a male runner from Kenya had won all of five of those races coming into New York City.
Lokedi, 28, an NCAA champion in 10,000 meters in 2018, won the women’s pro race in her New York City Marathon debut, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 23 minutes and 23 seconds. This was Lokedi’s first-ever marathon.
Kenyan-born Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel came in second, seven seconds behind Lokedi, followed by Gotytom Gebreslase of Ethiopia.
Chebet and Lokedi, the top finishers in the women’s and men’s races will each receive $100,000 (approximately Sh12 million).
Comments (2)
Congratulations team Kenya. Thanks for being such great ambassadors Thanks for proudly flying the red, green,black with a shield in the middle.As I enjoy this win,Iam also cautiously optimistic that this success will not be tainted with bad news of doping.
It is very unfortunate that each good performance by Kenyan athletes is nowadays looked at with suspicion after 30 world class runners from this marathon rich Nation have been banned, this year alone for doping.I even read one article that said one of the dopers was Eliud Kipchoge's training partner.The implication here is obvious...guilty by association.To his credit, the writer pointed out that there are alot of Kenyan athletes who win cleanly...and believe Kipchoge is one of the clean winner-sort of trying to make the implication innocuous.
Kenya is already on the danger list of countries that might be banned from participating in international evens if this menace is not curtailed.It's serious folks. I hope Ababu Namwamba has a few ideas that would starve off this corruption in athletic.
Domination! Go Kenyans! Proud of your hardwork, commitment and performance. ❤️🇰🇪