Sweden's Almgren stuns New York in his first marathon as Dumoulin runs a lifetime best
The European 10,000m champion clocked 2:06:01 on the demanding course, while Sheila Chepkirui won the women's race for the second time.
Sweden's Andreas Almgren, 31, won the New York City Marathon on Sunday in his very first race over the distance. He crossed the line in 2:06:01 after a strong finishing kick, the American athletics site LetsRun reports, recalling his past as an 800-metre runner. Zouhair Talbi was the top American in sixth, and four Americans ran under 2:07:30 without making the top five.
In the women's race, Sheila Chepkirui claimed her second win in New York. American Jess McClain caused a surprise by overtaking Hellen Obiri to finish second, six seconds behind the winner, LetsRun writes.
Koen Naert, who is training in Kenya for the Valencia Marathon, told Sporza he was impressed. Almgren, who won world junior bronze in 2014 and went to study after a string of injuries, held the European half marathon record and won the European 10,000m title and the world half marathon title. According to Naert, he deliberately chose New York so as not to face sub-two-hour runners straight away on his debut, and some already think Bashir Abdi should fear for his European record.
Former cyclist Tom Dumoulin also took part. The 35-year-old Dutch Giro winner finished in 2:27:12, a personal best that improves on his time from Amsterdam last year. Among more than 60,000 participants, that earned him 68th place among the men, just over 21 minutes behind Almgren, Sporza reports.