Words by: Rashad Grove
The New York City Marathon took place over the weekend with two winners from the continent of Africa, Mary Keitany of Kenya and Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia. The crowd of 50,000 raced their way through the five boroughs of New York.
Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia captured the men’s top prize, his first in New York with a time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 59 seconds. Desisa, 28, held off fellow countrymen Shura Kitata by a slim margin 1.99 seconds for his first win in New York marathon victory. He previously won the Boston Marathon in 2013 and 2015. He has come close many times to winning the New York marathon. He finished second in New York in 2014 and third in 2015 and 2017. 2018 proved the be the year that Desisia would finally achieve his goal of winning the heralded New York Marathon.
In the women’s race, fellow Kenyan Mary Keitany, 36, became just the third person to win the NYC marathon four times. She ran the race in just under 2:22:48, the second fastest time ever for a female runner in the history of the NYC marathon. Kenya’s Margaret Okayo’s still holds the record of 2:22:31 from her win in 2003.
