Kenyans Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany captured the New York City Marathon titles on Sunday.
Kipsang, in his New York debut, won the men's crown with a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 59 seconds, beating Ethiopia's Lelisa Desisa to the finish line by just 6.99 seconds.
The victory, on a day that featured strong winds and cold conditions, gave Kipsang a $500,000 bonus for winning the 2013-14 World Marathon Majors title.
Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia, the 2010 New York champion, finished third, 1:13 off the lead pace. American Meb Keflezighi, the 2009 winner, was another 1:04 back in fourth, while Olympic marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda finished fifth and Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai was sixth.
Mutai was trying to win the NYC title for the third straight time, a feat not accomplished since Alberto Salazar won three in a row from 1980-82. Mutai won last year and was also the 2011 champion. The 2012 race was canceled in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy.
Keitany won the New York title for the first time, edging countrymate Jemima Sumgong by a mere three seconds.
In her first marathon since the 2012 London Olympics, Keitany overtook Sumgong in the final half-mile and crossed the line in a time of 2:25:07. Keitany, who finished third in her two previous New York City starts, had not run a marathon since giving birth to her second child.
Portugal's Sara Moreira was third, 53 seconds behind the winner, followed by Latvia's Jelena Prokopcuka and American Desiree Linden. Prokopcuka won the New York title in 2005 and 2006.
[SportsNetwork.com]
