Men’s New York Marathon Preview
Are you in the (very unique) situation of trying to convince a Lord of the Rings fan to watch your favourite big city marathon? Look no further!
The one New York Marathon to rule them all is upon us: featuring the last four champions, the 2024 edition of this race is set to crown the true King of New York (sorry Biggie).
Tamirat Tola
For the first time in 10 years, the Olympic champion is heading to New York. After winning last year’s race in course record time, Tamirat Tola will return to the streets of the Big Apple on Sunday in hopes of becoming the first man to defend his title since John Kagwe in 1998.
Tola is quickly making a name for himself as the best marathon runner in the world, and a win in New York this weekend would place him firmly at the top of most people’s lists. In the last two years, the 33-year-old has picked up a world marathon title, won the New York Marathon, and come off the bench to claim Olympic gold (he’s also lowered the championship/course record at each of these races).
He's not unbeatable, though. In that same period, the Ethiopian lost three marathons and dropped out of two. That said, four of the five races he didn’t win were rabbited, and all of them were pancake flat: the three he did win were hilly, unpaced, and tactical – just as the 2024 New York Marathon will be.
Tamirat Tola celebrates winning the 2024 Olympic Marathon
Evans Chebet
Prior to Eliud Kipchoge, a decade of dominance in the marathon seemed impossible: the crown changed hands often, and a year on the throne was enough to define your legacy.
With Kipchoge’s abdication has come the restoration of the natural order. Tola may be the best in the world today, but it was only a year ago that Evans Chebet was the man to beat. The then-34-year-old had won a hat-trick of World Marathon Majors, and his 2:05:54 win in New York in 2022 was the fastest since the legendary 2011 tailwind year.
However, the Kenyan suffered an injury after winning in Boston in 2023 that put him out of the sport for a year. He returned to the Massachusetts capital in April after a disjointed build up and finished third, but he wasn’t selected for the Olympics and hasn’t raced a marathon since.
Unfortunately, Chebet doesn’t appear to have returned to full force in time for the 2024 New York Marathon. The Achilles injury that forced him to withdraw from this race last year has proved stubborn, and his agent Gianni Demadonna has described his training as “stop and go” – apparently, for every good week of training he logs, he spends another barely able to run.
The good news for Chebet is that he doesn’t need a perfect build up to compete with the best in the world. His third-place finish in Boston earlier this year came off the back of an even worse training block, and he confirmed in the pre-race press conference that he is fitter now than he was in April. His fifth-place finish at the Great North Run Half Marathon in September might suggest otherwise, but I’m willing to give the 2:03:00 man with 29 career marathons to his name the benefit of the doubt.
Evans Chebet wins the 2023 Boston Marathon
Geoffrey Kamworor
Speaking of injuries, Geoffrey Kamworor is returning to New York in hopes of becoming the first man in more than 40 years to win this race three times.
It’s easy to forget that Kamworor is still only 31 years old. During the 2010s, the Kenyan picked up a world championship medal on the track, three world half marathon titles, two world cross country championships, broke the half marathon world record, and won the New York Marathon twice – not bad for a guy in his 20s.
However, in June 2020, Kamworor was hit by a motorcycle while out on a run and sustained a tibia fracture that required surgery and temporarily derailed his career. He did make a full recovery, but he’s also been stuck in an injury cycle ever since: he won the Kenyan 10,000m trials in 2021 but pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics citing an ankle injury, and he more recently withdrew from the 2023 New York Marathon and 2024 London Marathon with a hip flexor problem.
Mind you, it’s not been all doom and gloom for Kamworor. He hasn’t won an international race since the motorcycle incident, but he did set a personal best in London in 2023 when he finished second behind the late Kelvin Kiptum, and he made it into the top five at the 2022 World Marathon Championships and the 2023 World Cross Country Championships. He hasn’t raced at all this year outside of a fourth-place finish at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships back in March, so he’s definitely a question mark for Sunday’s race, but he’s also taken a much more measured approach to his preparation to ensure he arrived in New York in one piece.
“This time I did very controlled training,” he explained in a pre-race press conference.
“I think my body is good. I will give it a try…It means a lot to me because I have great memories from New York. After a long time not coming back to New York, it feels great to be back again.”
Geoffrey Kamworor wins his second New York Marathon
Albert Korir
The fourth former champion returning to New York is Albert Korir. Taking top honours in 2021, Korir always seems to do well in this race: outside of his win, he also finished runner-up behind Kamworor in 2019 and Tola in 2023.
Despite his successes, Korir “only” has a personal best of 2:06:57. He’ll be competing against guys like Tola this weekend, who has run quicker on 11 occasions, so if someone pushes the pace early it’s unlikely he’ll be able to hang with it.
Don’t count him out of a medal, though: only once in his nine years of marathon running has Korir gone an entire year without making a podium, and after finishing fifth in Boston earlier this year, he’ll definitely want to secure a top-three finish.
Bashir Abdi
Bashir Abdi is the world’s most consistent marathon runner; unfortunately for him, he consistently doesn’t win.
The Ethiopian-born Belgian has finished in the top four in his last nine marathons, including two medals at the Olympics, but he’s failed to win any of the eight World Marathon Majors he has started in.
Will the European marathon record holder finally win his first Major in his New York debut?
Bashir Abdi celebrates winning his second Olympic medal
To find out how you can watch the 2024 New York Marathon, click here.
To read my preview of the women’s race, click here.