World recorld holders in half marathon, Joyciline Jepkosgei and Geoffrey Kamworor lead Kenyans to 1-2 finishes at the 2019 New York City Marathon

With the double screens on the TV that made sure fans would not miss the action in the men’s race while watching the women’s race at the same time and the alerts from the mobile phone application whenever athletes crossed some particular points in the race, this year’s New York City marathon was truly exciting to watch.

As they approached the 39km point, Korir glanced back. It was an indication that perhaps he was mentally preparing himself to secure the second position and was just trying to stick with Kamworor to make sure he was safely well ahead of the runner behind them. He then allowed Kamworor to slowly open up a gap ahead of him as he followed with occasional back glances.

Well clear ahead of the rest, Kamworor crossed the finish line in 2:08:13. He was followed by Albert Korir for the second place in 2:18:36, with Girma Gebre coming in for the third place in 2:18:38.

Jepkosgei wins her maiden marathon in New York

In her first-ever marathon race, Joyciline Jepkosgei defeated Mary Keitany in the last few kilometers to win the women’s race in 2:22:38, narrowly missing the course record by seven seconds. Keitany came second in 2:23:32 with Ruti Aga settling in third place in 2:25:51.

Shura Kitata had surprised everyone in the men’s race by going out fast at the start and running a solo run by the second kilometer of the race.

As the rest of the men’s elite field caught up with Kitata for the first time at around the 5km point, Desiree Linden decided to also make a move in the women’s race after a group of about 11 women had crossed the 10km point. She appeared to be increasing the gap by surging whenever a bend obscured her from the chasing pack.

Four women; Keitany, Aga, Jepkosgei and Kiprop then caught up with Linden at around the 21km point. It had been a fast pace and Linden soon became the victim of her own pace when she and Kiprop were dropped by the leading pack of three. Aga, Keitany and Jepkosgei kept running parallel to each other with none seeming to be taking advantage of the others as pacesetters.

Aga was dropped from the leading back at around 30km and the battle for the title appeared to be between Keitany and Jepkosgei.

In the men’s race, it appeared as though Kitata was doing some kind of a fartlek in which he would relax and let the group catch up with him, then sprint again for some unspecified time, perhaps depending on the topography of the course.

Brett Robinson of Australia broke away from the leaders at around the 22km point, but he was not able to create any big gap as the chasers soon closed it before the 25km point. Albert Korir took to the front at some point after that and the large pack in the men’s race was soon down to only five men at around the 30km point.

The size of the leading pack rapidly decreased from that point until it was just Kamworor and Korir at the lead before Kamworor eventually eased away ahead of Korir to claim a second title in New York.

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Justin Lagat is a long distance runner. A World Athletics Certified long distance running Coach, and Freelance Sports Journalist. Work appears at World Athletics, RunBlogRun, Spikes Magazine, and Run Republic, among other websites.