The 2016 New York City Marathon was a rousing success. It featured a record-setting 52,049 runners representing 120 nations. This year’s overall winner was 20 year old Eritrean native Ghirmay Ghebreslassie who completed the race in 2:07:51. Mary Keitany, a 34 year old Kenyan was the women’s winner for the third straight time. Her winning time was 2:24:26, one second slower than last year. Ghebreslassie was the youngest man and the first Eritrean native to win the New York City Marathon. Kenya’s Lucas Rotich came in second and Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa got third place. Sally Kipyego of Kenya came in second and American Molly Huddle, making her marathon debut, came in third.
Ghebreslassie said he was ‘really proud’ of his accomplishment. Prior to his victory Tom Fleming in 1973 and Alberto Salazar in 1980 were the New York City Marathon’s youngest winners. Both men were 22 when they won the event. Stanley Biwott, last year’s winner, withdrew at mile 10 with a calf injury. With her third straight victory in the event Mary Keitany became the race’s first woman to win three straight times since Grete Waitz won the race five straight times between 1982-86.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair division for the second year in a row. He defeated Kurt Fearnley of Australia just as he did in the Chicago marathon last month. Tatyana McFadden won the women’s wheelchair race and continued her dominance. For the fourth straight year she’s won the marathons in London, Boston, Chicago as well as New York. That brings her total to 17 major marathon victories. In the Rio Paralympic Games McFadden won six medals.