Women’s New York Marathon Preview
This Sunday, the Abbotts World Marathon Majors will reach its final stop on the calendar at the New York City Marathon. The most popular footrace in the world is set to attract more than 50,000 runners and will see athletes tackle all five boroughs as they trace their way along the Harbour and East River to finish in Manhattan’s iconic Central Park.
The Berlin Marathon elite field gets watered down in an Olympic year; the New York Marathon one gets a boost. Enough time has passed since the Paris Games that those who ran in the French capital are beginning to return to the roads for one last outing in 2024, and many of the big hitters have picked The Big Apple for their season finale.
The women’s race has so many different storylines, and while none of them will be as historical as Ruth Chepng’etich running sub-2:10 in Chicago, this will still be a worthwhile watch.
Read on to learn about the elite women’s race or click here to read the men’s preview.
Sheila Chepkirui
The fastest personal best in the field actually belongs to the least accomplished athlete in this preview. Sheila Chepkirui was a background character for 18 years on the track, always hovering on the edge of making a Kenyan national team. The few times she did represent her country as a senior athlete were uninspiring, and it wasn’t until she stepped up to the marathon that she established herself as one of the best runners in the world.
Making her debut in Valencia in 2022, Chepkirui clocked 2:17:29 for third to become the eleventh fastest marathon runner in history. She finished fourth in London in 2023 and posted another sub-2:18 performance in Berlin later that year to finish second behind Tigst Assefa’s world record win. Chepkirui was only sixth in London earlier this year in the slowest race of her career, but when your slowest marathon is a 2:19:31 – a time that would still put her in the top five fastest women heading to New York – then you deserve to be one of the favourites.
Hellen Obiri
However, being one of the favourites isn’t the same as being the favourite. That distinction belongs to Hellen Obiri, who will hope to defend her title on the streets of New York this weekend.
Don’t let Obiri’s 2:21:38 personal best fool you: the Kenyan was the 16th fastest on paper at the Boston Marathon earlier this year and won that race for the second year in a row.
Put simply, Obiri has never run a quick marathon because she has never entered a quick marathon. She has only competed in Boston, New York, and at the Paris Olympics: none of these races have pacers, and all of them boast some pretty nasty hills. Her coach has said that he believes she can run at least 2:11 in a flat race like Berlin or Valencia, and many of her training partners have publicly commented on the ridiculous level of fitness she has reached in the build up to this year’s New York Marathon.
But even if the hype surrounding the Kenyan is some strange blend of propaganda and intimidation tactics, we know she can still run well off a disjointed training block.
Obiri picked up an injury after her win in Boston that only permitted her to train for six weeks in the lead-up to the Games, and, despite twice falling over and once stopping to throw up, she still found her way onto the podium. She’s also the athlete in the field to have most recently won a World Marathon Major, and to have second-most recently won one, and to have third-most recently won one. That’s right: Obiri has won three World Marathon Majors in a time where none of her competitors have won any. Add to that her Olympic marathon medal from August, the fact that she’s the defending champion, and the reports saying she’s in the best form of her life, and she becomes the clear favourite.
Sharon Lokedi (L) and Hellen Obiri (R) in the closing stages of the 2024 Boston Marathon
Sharon Lokedi
Sharon Lokedi won this race on debut in 2022: however, she has since firmly positioned herself as Obiri’s bridesmaid.
The Kenyan missed the 2023 spring marathon season on account of injury but returned to New York in November, where she finished third, just ten seconds adrift of Obiri in first. Lokedi also trailed Obiri to the line in Boston earlier this year, this time by eight seconds, before narrowly missing the podium in her maiden Olympics, placing fourth by just four seconds behind – you guessed it – Obiri. So, while it does appear that Obiri has Lokedi’s number, those looking to split the Kenyan duo usually have just a few seconds to do so.
Lokedi has only run four marathons, but her resume already includes three World Marathon Major medals and a top-five finish on Olympic debut. She’s one of the most consistent athletes on the scene, so expect her to be challenging for another medal on Sunday.
Tirunesh Dibaba & Vivian Cheruiyot
No, you haven’t woken up in 2008. I’m not about to go play Pokemon with my primary school friends or turn my maths sheet over so loud that every person in the class knows I've beaten them to the back page. Tirunesh Dibaba and Vivian Cheruiyot really are lining up against one another in 2024.
Once the fiercest of rivals on the track, Dibaba and Cheruiyot have a combined four Olympic titles and sixteen world championships. They have raced each other 25 times at the global level over the last two decades and have shared the podium on 10 of those occasions.
But, it’s been a minute. The pair last squared off at the London Marathon in 2018, and both women have since given birth (Dibaba twice). Because of this, Dibaba hasn’t raced a marathon since 2018, and while Cheruiyot did run in Paris in April (where she finished third in 2:21:46), that race marked the end of her five-year hiatus from the event.
In that time, they’ve also gotten older (believe it or not). Dibaba is 39 and Cheruiyot is 41, and while we are seeing an increasing number of athletes have successful marathon careers into their forties, they usually don’t come on the back of a multi-year break.
Dibaba and Cheruiyot are two of the greatest distance runners in history, but it’s been too long since either of them have been dominant on the global stage for their legacy to be relevant to any predictions. I would never rule them out, but I also won’t be shocked if they are a non-factor this weekend.
Edna Kiplagat
Edna Kiplagat is living proof that what I just wrote about Dibaba and Cheruiyot is wrong. The Kenyan won her first international medal in 1996, made her marathon debut in 2005, and won this race back in 2010. She’s a two-time marathon world champion and will line up in New York for her 30th career marathon on Sunday, just 12 days before her 45th birthday.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic ended, Kiplagat has been enjoying the regular cadence of travelling from her home in Colorado twice a year to race in Boston and New York. She hasn’t run a marathon outside of these two cities since she placed fourth at the World Championships in Doha in 2019, but she hasn’t needed to: she won the Boston Marathon in 2021 and medalled at the event earlier this year, finishing third behind Obiri and Lokedi at age 44 to prove that she is still one of the best in the world.
It's difficult to comprehend how impressive Kiplagat’s nearly three-decade-long career as a professional runner has been. While I don’t think she will be fighting for the win in New York, I can almost guarantee that she will play an important role at the front of the race.
Edna Kiplagat crosses the line to finish third at the 2024 Boston Marathon
To find out how you can watch the 2024 New York Marathon, click here.
To read my preview of the men’s race, click here.