New York City Marathon is world’s largest with over 55,000 finishers: Organisers

New York: New York City Marathon set the new world record for the largest marathon as 55,646 athletes completed the five-borough race on November 3, leapfrogging Berlin’s Marathon where 54,280 runners completed the race in September. “From the 1st finisher to the 55,646th. Congratulations to the finishers of the 2024 #TCSNYCMarathon, you are now record holders for the largest marathon in world history,” the organisers posted on X. According to the New York Road Runners, 56,012 people started the race with 55,646 of them finished the race, of which 30,795 are men’s finishers with 24,731 women’s finishers and 120 non-binary finishers, the most ever women’s and non-binary finishers. International runners were well-represented, too, with 17,859 crossing the line in Central Park. The 35-year-old Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands won his first World Marathon Majors race in 2:07:39, marking the first men’s open division winner from the country. Kenya rounded out the podium, with a pair of former champions in Evans Chebet, the 2022 champion, and Albert Korir, the 2021 champion, in second and third place, in 2:07:45 and 2:08:00. In the women’s open division, Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui, in her New York City Marathon debut, led the way for a Kenyan sweep in 2:24:35. 2024 Paris Olympic Marathon bronze medalist Hellen Obiri was second in 2:24:49, followed by compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot in 2:25:21. This was the first time since 1978 that a single country won gold, silver and bronze in the women’s open division. In the professional wheelchair division, Daniel Romanchuk and Susannah Scaroni returned to the top of the podium to become the first pair of American athletes to win the division. Romanchuk, the champion from 2018 and 2019, broke the tape first in 1:36:31, followed by Great Britain’s David Weir in 1:36:36 and Japan’s Tomoki Suzuki in 1:36:44. In the women’s wheelchair division, Scaroni won her second New York City Marathon in 1:48:05. She won by more than 10 minutes, one of the largest margins of victory in event history. –IANS