NEW YORK CITY, November 01 — In his much-hyped debut at the 26.2M distance, Andreas Almgren executed a perfect race to win the TCS New York City Marathon. High expectations met the Swedish star when he arrived in the U.S., particularly after he won the World Road Running Championships half-marathon in Copenhagen in September. He emphatically lived up to them.
As is typical for this race due to the undulating challenging terrain, the early tempo was conservative, with a large pack taking its time in the opening stages. Through the early splits at 5K (15:30) and 10K (30:52) they ran well over 2:10 pace.
Italy’s Yeman Crippa briefly tried to inject some speed in the 11th mile, but it was a short-lived effort. American Zouhair Talbi then took his turn and hit halfway in 1:04:01, about 3 seconds ahead of a group of about 20 including Almgren, defending champion Benson Kipruto of Kenya, American recordholder Conner Mantz, fellow American Ryan Ford, Lesotho’s Kamohelo Mofolo and Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor, who won this race in ’17 and ’19.
“I had no intention to just go by myself the whole race,” said Talbi, who won January’s Houston Marathon (2:05:45) and finished 5th in Boston (2:03:45) in April. “But I just wanted to shake it up a little bit and see if some other people will take it fast because coming to this race, I knew I had more advantage if the race goes fast. That’s what I trained for.”
Still, very little had changed through 18M, with 17 still together. Around 20M, Almgren wondered if he might be in over his head. “I thought I was supposed to feel a bit fresher with 10K left, but I started to feel a bit fatigued,” he said. “Then when the pace started to pick up again, I just felt fresh again suddenly. It kind of surprised me how fast those different kind of feelings we could get during a marathon [vary].”
A variety of men were taking turns leading until Kipruto moved to the front in the 23rd mile with 11 remaining. Mantz, who had scratched from the Boston Marathon last spring due to a sacral stress fracture, was among those who were drifting back.
Minutes later the race was truly on when a quartet broke away as they entered Central Park for the first time: Almgren, Kipruto, Crippa and Talbi. At 40K (2:00:00, off a 5K segment in 14:27), Talbi started to fall behind.
Thanks to a 4:32 split for the 25th mile, Almgren and Crippa next dropped Kipruto. As the course exited the park briefly for a stretch down Central Park South, Almgren began to unleash the closing surge that had seen him take the world half-marathon title. Crippa, who had won April’s Paris Marathon in a PR 2:05:18, had no answer.
The Swede broke the tape in 2:06:01, equaling the fourth-fastest time ever on the course and pocketing $100,000 for the win. “I didn’t really look at my watch or the time or try to calculate a finishing time or anything. I just tried to stay up in the front then see what happened, just tried to see how the race developed basically,” he said. “I didn’t think it was going to be that quick of a finish. I didn’t really know that we would run that fast. It’s like that’s one of the reasons why I choose to race New York. It’s like you don’t really care about the time, it’s all about trying to get as good a position as possible, and I wanted to be in it and try to win it.”
While Almgren admitted to feeling some “uncertainty” at the startline, he was confident in his preparation. “Up until September, I’d never run longer than 32K,” he said. “But it surprised me on how well I could handle that and how fast I can recover from those quite hard long runs.”
The 31-year-old Almgren has been in the spotlight for more than a decade. He was the bronze medalist in the 800 at the ’14 World Junior Championships and had consistently been among the world’s best as he gradually moved up in distance. But injuries had undermined his performances at major international competitions until he won the bronze in the 10,000 at the ‘25 World Championships and then dominated the same event at this past summer’s European Championships. The world half-marathon title only increased the buzz surrounding him leading up to New York.
An exuberant Crippa took 2nd in 2:06:14, while the unheralded Mofolo (2:06:26) closed well to pass Kipruto (2:06:27) late for 3rd. Australian Haftu Strintzos took 5th, followed by Talbi, whose 2:06:43 was the fastest ever by an American in New York. Ahmed Muhumed (8th in 2:07:09), Ford (10th in 2:07:17) and Mantz (11th in 2:07:27) were the next best Americans.
“Coming up to this race, my goal was to be with the top guys as far as possible,” said Talbi, who represented Morocco at the ’24 Olympics and is now a U.S. citizen — and will be fully eligible to represent Team USA in August ’27. “This is the first time in a major marathon that in the last 2M I [felt like I] was having a chance to win the race. I’m going to go back and train more, get faster.”
NEW YORK CITY MARATHON MEN’S RESULTS
New York City, New York, November 01—
1. Andreas Almgren (Swe) 2:06:01; 2. Yeman Crippa (Ita) 2:06:14; 3. Kamohelo Mofolo (Les) 2:06:26; 4. Benson Kipruto (Ken) 2:06:27; 5. Haftu Strintzos (Aus) 2:06:34; 6. Zouhair Talbi (US) 2:06:43; 7. Ryota Kondo (Jpn) 2:07:08; 8. Ahmed Muhumed (US) 2:07:09; 9. Geoffrey Kamworor (Ken) 2:07:09; 10. Ryan Ford (US) 2:07:17;
11. Conner Mantz (US) 2:07:27; 12. Cybrian Kotut (Ken) 2:07:42; 13. Abdi Nageeye (Neth) 2:07:58; 14. Aidan Troutner (US) 2:08:54; 15. Joe Klecker (US) 2:09:28; 16. Joel Reichow (US) 2:09:43; 17. Patrick Dever (GB) 2:09:53; 18. Patrick Kiprop (Ken) 2:10:01; 19. Peter Lynch (Ire) 2:10:03; 20. Merga Gemeda (US) 2:10:32; 21. Andrew Colley (US) 2:10:49.
