2023 New York City Marathon / Tola and Obiri win

Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola topped the men’s category of the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon with a new course record of two hours, four minutes and 58 seconds.

The women’s race was won by Kenya’s Hellen Obiri; she covered the distance in 2:27:23.

Tola, the 2022 world champion in the discipline, was followed to the finish line in New York by Kenya’s Albert Korir (2:06:57) and Ethiopia’s Shura Kitata (2:07:11). In the women’s category, Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey (2:27:29) and Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi (2:27:33) placed second and third respectively.

More than 50,000 people participated in the 53rd edition of the New York City Marathon. As per the report on the event published by Runners World, Tola, who was part of the lead pack from the start, began putting distance between himself and the rest of the pack at around 25 kilometres. For some time in this evolving separation he had the company of fellow countryman Yemal Yimer but at about eight miles left to go, Tola started to pull away from Yimer too. The new course record at run’s close was an improvement on the old by eight seconds.

The women’s race threw up no new course record. But it was more tightly contested than Tola’s passage to victory. Here, the top three finishers battled each other right into the last mile and it was over the last 600 metres or so that Obiri sprinted ahead to take the top spot. Gidey finished close behind. Obiri is the first athlete in 34 years to win both the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon in the same season, Runners World said in its report.   

According to Wikipedia, Hellen Obiri is the only woman to have won world titles in indoor and outdoor track and cross country. As of November 2023, Letesenbet Gidey held the world record for both the 10,000 metres and the half marathon.

(The author, Shyam G Menon is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai)