By Florence Mafomemeh
When it comes to running marathons, Africans always dominate. Like any other year that they have dominated the TCS New York City Marathon, the 52rd edition was not different. The men took the top four spots while the women came in the first six positions with Kenya winning both the men’s and women’s categories.
Here are the men and women who again made Africa proud in this year’s NYC Marathon.
Men:
Evan Kiplagat Chebet, Kenya. He also won the Boston Marathon this year becoming only the third man this century to win both the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon.
Runner-Up: Shura Kitata Tola, Ethiopia. He has won other other marathons including the 2017 Rome and Frankfurt marathons and second places at the 2018 and 2022 New York City Marathon.
3rd Place-Abdi Nageeye, Netherlands. She’s a Somali-Dutch who was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. At the age of 6, he was resettled as a refugee in the Netherlands. After spending four years in the Netherlands, he then lived with his family in Syria and Somalia. Afterwards, Nageeye returned to the Netherlands via Ethiopia and was adopted by a family in Oldebroek. He won the silver medal in the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
4th Place – Mohammed El Aaraby, Morocco.
Women
Winner – Sharon Lokedi, Kenya. She came out of nowhere to win the New York City Marathon. She was recruited to the University of Kansas where she has studied nursing and business. She began competing first in collegiate track and cross country in 2015.
Runner-up – Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, Israel (Kenyan-Israeli) She is a Kenyan-Israeli runner who won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
3rd Place – Gotytom Gebreslase, Ethiopia. She won the gold medal in the marathon at the 2022 World Athletics
4th place: Edna Kiplagat, Kenya.
5th place, Viola Cheptoo, Kenya
6th place: Hellen Obiri, Kenya
This year, the Marathon saw nearly 50,000 athletes. After canceling the event in 2020 because of the pandemic and about 30,000 in 2021, getting back to normal was paramount amid strong gusty winds and temperatures that were unusually warm for this time of year in the five boroughs.