NYC Marathon Results Are In — Kenya Cleans Up In Both The Men’s And Women’s Races

The largest marathon in the world, the NYC Marathon, took place yesterday, with Wilson Kipsang reaching the finish first. The early returns from the NYC Marathon were reported on by the Inquisitr. But the rest of the results of the NYC Marathon’s remaining runners have come in. While the first place spot went to Kenya in both the men’s and women’s races, the runners-up came from several different parts in the world.

According to ESPN, Kipsang won the NYC Marathon in an incredible two hours, 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Kipsang felt such a drive to win the NYC Marathon that he had to force himself to slow down, to keep from tiring out.

“I had to really exercise a lot of patience,” he said. “It was very tactical. So it was not easy.”

According to NBC News, a close second was Lelisa Desisa from Ethiopia, who was only 11 seconds behind the Kenyan champion. Kipsang commented on how close Desisa was during the running of the marathon.

“When I saw that Lelisa was running really close to me, I had to save energy for the closing kick,” said Kipsang. “I was trying to check the distance and the amount of energy that was really left. So I was really very sure of that kind of sprint, even if it was 50 meters, I was ready for it.”

Third place also went to a runner from Ethiopia, Gebre Gebremariam, who won the NYC Marathon in 2010. Meb Keflezighi, who was the winner of the Boston Marathon, took fourth place. The Eritrean-born American claims winning the Boston Marathon helped his performance in the NYC Marathon.

“I think the high from Boston is still going, and people saying, ‘Meb! Meb! USA! USA!’ is just phenomenal,” said Keflezighi, “and that really helped me at the end.”

Kenya took first place in the women’s NYC Marathon as well. Mary Keitany was within three seconds of the fastest women’s finish ever in the NYC Marathon. This is the fourth time that Kenyans have won first place and swept the NYC Marathon and the second time in a row.

Wilson Kipsang can now add the 2014 NYC Marathon to his growing list of titles, which include 2013 Berlin and 2014 London Marathon victories. During the Berlin Marathon, Kipsang even managed to break a world record, finishing in 2:03:23.

“I was feeling very strong,” Kipsang added about his experience during the NYC Marathon, “but there was no way I could really take off at high speed because there was a lot of headwind and everybody was trying to run from behind.”

[Image courtesy of Getty Images]