Kenya’s Keitany, Eritrea’s Ghebreslassie win NYC Marathon

NEW YORK — Eritrea’s Ghirmay Ghebreslassie and Kenya’s Mary Keitany won the New York City Marathon on Sunday.

Keitany became the first woman to win three straight titles since Grete Waltz won five straight from 1982 to 1986. She pulled away around the 15th mile and finished with an unofficial time of 2 hours, 24 minutes, 26 seconds — one second behind her time last year.

Ghebreslassie finished his debut in New York with a time of 2:7:51.

For most of the course, the men’s field was a three-man race between Ghebreslassie, Kenya’s Lucas Rotich and Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa. By mile 20, Ghebreslassie began gradually pulling away.

The 20-year-old beat Rotich by 62 seconds to become the youngest male winner in New York. The previous youngest male winners were Alberto Salazar in 1980 and Tom Fleming in 1973, who won as 22-year-olds.

McFadden, who won six medals at the Rio Paralympics, took the lead for good at the 15-mile mark and comfortably led the rest of the course to win for the fifth time in New York.

Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his second NYC Marathon title in the men’s race and his sixth marathon this year. He edged Australia’s Kurt Fearnley by a sixth-tenths of a second, repeating their photo finish at last month’s Chicago marathon.

Defending champion Ernst Van Dyk of South Africa came in fourth.