The key facts

  • Kipruto won last year's marathon by a record-thin margin of 0.03 seconds
  • Obiri is chasing a third title in four years after her course record of 2:19:51
  • Around 60,000 participants from 140 countries are expected

Title defenses and historic prospects

Defending champions Benson Kipruto and Hellen Obiri of Kenya will line up at Sunday's New York City Marathon with a chance of repeat victories, AFP reports. Organizers expect around 60,000 runners from 140 countries to cover the 26.2-mile (42.16 km) course through the city's five boroughs.

Men's race: last year's razor-thin margin

Last year Kipruto claimed the closest winning margin in the history of the New York men's marathon, edging fellow Kenyan Alex Mutiso by three hundredths of a second — both finished in 2:08:09. If the 36-year-old Kenyan wins again, he will become the first man to win the race twice in a row since Geoffrey Mutai in 2013. He also has victories at the Boston (2021), Chicago (2022) and Tokyo (2024) marathons, bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and third place at this year's Boston Marathon. Among his rivals are Ethiopia's Deresa Geleta, sixth at this year's London Marathon and a debutant in North American marathons, and 31-year-old Swede Andreas Almgren, who last month set a European half-marathon record of 58:06 in Copenhagen.

Women's race: Obiri on course for an elite club

Hellen Obiri, also 36, has already won the Boston Marathon in 2023 and 2024 and the New York race in 2023 and 2025, and took bronze at the Paris Olympics. This year she won the New York City Half Marathon for the second time with a course record of 1:06:33 and finished second at the London Marathon, 12 seconds behind the women's-only world record of 2:15:41 set by Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa in a women's race. A victory on Sunday would make Obiri only the fourth woman with three career titles in New York, after Grete Waitz, Mary Keitany and Paula Radcliffe, and the first repeat women's champion since Keitany's 2014–2016 streak. Last year she set the course record of 2:19:51.

Conditions and an anniversary edition

Clear weather and ideal running temperatures are expected. The race will be held for the 50th time on a course that takes in all five boroughs of the city — the route that, in AFP's wording, began the modern era of the race.