New York City marathon breaks two different records in men's and women's race

The New York City marathon ended with the closest result ever in the men's race: the 34-year-old Kenyan Benson Kipruto crossed the finish line only two hundreds of a second before his compatriot, the 29-year-old Alexander Mutiso, and both were given the same time of two hours, eight minutes and nine seconds.

Both athletes quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the pack, but Kipruto, who pulled away in the last 200 meters and was lifting the arms in celebration, didn't realise that Mutiso made a last-minute sprint that nearly passes him. Another Kenyan, Albert Korir, was third 37 seconds later.

It is an even closer result than the marathon from the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with a difference of three hundreds of a second.

New York marathon record broken in women's race by Hellen Obiri

In the women's race, a record was broken for the NYC Marathon, as 35-year-old Kenyan Hellen Obiri finished in 2:19:51, nearly three minutes faster than the previous record of 2:22.31 set been by Margaret Okaya in 2003.

The 2025 New York City marathon will also go down in history as the last marathon for Eliud Kipchoge, considered the greatest marathon runner in history, World record holder between 2016 and 2020, with eleven gold medals in Majors and 2 Olympic Gold medals. The Kenyan, who turns 41 on Wednesday, finished 17th in his first time running in the New York City marathon.

Further reading: Climate change will make breaking marathon world records nearly impossible, says study