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In a fitting theme for the city of Broadway, the 53rd edition of the New York City Marathon was all about breakout stars finally getting their time in the spotlight. Both winners of the men’s and women’s elite races in NYC are frequently recurring characters near the front of major races, but neither had completed a signature performance before today. Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya won their first World Marathon Major titles by defeating fields full of former NYC champs, with Nageeye outkicking 2022 champ Evans Chebet down the homestretch and Chepkirui beating 2023 champ Hellen Obiri at her own game with a late surge through Central Park.

After finishing top American at the Paris Olympics, Conner Mantz was once again the top U.S. finisher in New York with a sixth-place 2:09:00 performance, and 38-year-old Sara Vaughn finished sixth on the women’s side after dropping out of Chicago three weeks earlier. It was a strong day for Americans overall as three men and three women finished in the top 10, after only one man and two women accomplished the same feat last year.

Full results and participant lookup can be found here. And if you want to relive all the fun with our CITIUS CAFE watchalong, you can replay it here on YouTube courtesy of HOKA.

Sheila Chepkirui proves that talent is talent.

33-year-old Sheila Chepkirui clocked a 2:17:29 marathon debut in Valencia in 2022 and in the two years since has run 2:17, 2:18, and 2:19 at World Marathon Majors, never finishing lower than sixth (London ‘24). She entered the field with the fastest personal best, but was not considered by many to be the favorite as she’d previously only run fast, flat courses with pacers and New York is a totally different style of racing.

But at the end of the day, Chepkirui outlasted experienced championship racers like reigning champ Hellen Obiri and seven-time global gold medalist Vivian Cheruiyot to break the tape in 2:24:35. It was her slowest career marathon by a good margin, but arguably her greatest performance as it was her first and biggest win. Chepkirui, who started her career as a middle-distance runner, gave Obiri a taste of her own medicine as it was Chepkirui who had the best finishing sprint, closing her final mile through the hills of Central Park in 4:59.

Obiri finished off a great 2024 season of her own: despite battling a stress injury in her buildup to the Olympics, she still finished three of the deepest marathons in the world on the podium this year, with a win in Boston, a bronze medal in Paris, and a runner-up finish here. Because Obiri’s set the bar so high for herself so quickly, it’s easy to forget that she’s only two years and six races into her marathon career. Obiri had been so optimistic about her fitness before the race that she thought 2:18 was possible, and while a pedestrian first half made that mark pretty much impossible, it’s clear she’s capable of running way faster than her 2:22:37 personal best. The temptation to keep bouncing between Boston and New York for the paychecks will be strong, every time Obiri beats a bunch of sub-2:20 runners it raises the excitement for when she finally tackles a fast course.

Abdi Nageeye returns from Olympic disappointment better than before.

Somali-born Dutchman Abdi Nageeye has been racing marathons for over a decade, clocking a 2:11:33 debut back in 2014, but he didn’t get his first win at the distance until 2022 and his victory in New York was his first World Marathon Major title. Nageeye has a silver medal from the Tokyo Olympics, but he dropped out of Paris in his third Olympic appearance earlier this summer.

The men’s race played out similarly to the women’s, with a large front pack and early first half pace leading to several attacks in the last ten miles by the major players. By the time the race hit Central Park, Nageeye and Chebet were the last two standing (with reigning Olympic and 2023 NYC champ Tamirat Tola lurking in the distance), and Chebet’s history of winning sprint finishes at marathons would not repeat itself this time, as Nageeye pulled away in the final 600 meters to run 2:07:39. The men’s results reinforced that experience is an asset in New York, as Nageeye has finished fourth and second in the last two editions and the top 5 runners today were the 2022 champ (Chebet), the 2023 champ (Tola), the 2021 champ (Albert Korir), and the 2017/2019 champ (Geoffrey Kamworor).

Although his run in Paris was a bit of a blemish, Nageeye now has two pretty big wins on his card this year, adding NYC to a win at the Rotterdam Marathon in April in a personal best and Dutch national record of 2:04:45. In a year where the void left by Eliud Kipchoge and the late Kelvin Kiptum has created a lot more parity at the top of the event, Nageeye inserted himself in the conversation for best marathoners in the world in 2024.

Conner Mantz, Clayton Young, and CJ Albertson complete banner years.

The story of the top American men in New York is one of both consistency and consistent excellence. The trio of Conner Mantz (6th, 2:09:00), Clayton Young (7th, 2:09:21), and CJ Albertson (10th, 2:10:57) have clocked ten marathon performances this year, all of which were top-10 and eight of which were sub-2:10. While Mantz and Young train side-by-side year round and Albertson is famously a lone wolf, they all have three big things in common: fearlessness against elite competition, prodigious talent, and impressive consistency over the last several seasons.

Mantz just barely missed becoming the first American to qualify for the 2025 World Championships (top 5 at World Marathon Majors receive an auto-Q), but all three runners will pick up big world ranking points for their runs in New York. And Albertson, who is on his fourth marathon of the year and second in the last month, has managed to average 2:09:49 across all his 2024 races (including a 2:08:17 personal best in Chicago only three weeks ago).

Sara Vaughn and Jess McClain show they can adapt and thrive.

For both Sara Vaughn (6th, 2:26:56) and Jessica McClain (8th, 2:27:19), racing NYC was not necessarily “Plan A.” Vaughn was targeting the Chicago Marathon but came down with a case of COVID-19 prior to the race and ended up dropping out midway. But she was able to secure a last-minute entry into New York and made the most of the opportunity, clocking her highest-ever finish at a World Marathon Major. Vaughn was running with the women’s leaders far later in the race than we’ve ever seen her at this level of competition, a promising sign that the 38-year-old’s marathoning career has plenty of big performances ahead.

McClain, a former 5000m runner who became the underdog story of the Olympic Marathon Trials after finishing fourth while unsponsored, also had other plans for the summer. The Team USA alternate flew all the way to Paris to get ready to compete after reports surfaced of Fiona O’Keeffe’s possible injury, and when O’Keeffe controversially started, then dropped out of the Olympic marathon after less than 5 kilometers, the general sentiment was that McClain deserved a better end to her 2024 Cinderella story. She got her flowers after all in her first World Marathon Major appearance, finishing eighth in 2:27:19 with a 74:01-73:18 negative split.

Other notable American finishes include Kellyn Taylor, who grabbed tenth in a perfectly paced 2:27:59 (with half splits of 74:00-73:59) after having knee surgery earlier in the year, Des Linden who finished 11th in 2:29:32 at age 41, and Jenny Simpson, who’s announced her retirement from professional running at the end of the year and went out with her third marathon start (and second finish) of 2024, clocking 2:31:54 for 18th place.

With all six World Marathon Majors on the books, the 2024 marathon circuit is almost entirely wrapped up, with the exception of a few notable upcoming events in December like the Valencia Marathon and the California International Marathon. Next year, the circuit will feature seven races as the Sydney Marathon was just announced as the newest World Marathon Major.

Thanks for following along for the ride and stay tuned for more coverage to come!