BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS
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Kenya’s Mary Keitany has won the New York City Marathon for the fourth time in five years as Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa sealed the men’s title.
Lelisa won the Boston Marathon in 2013 and 2015 but had never won in New York.
Keitany, 37, was second in 2017 but won back the title in 2018 in an unofficial time of two hours, 22 minutes, 48 seconds. She finished almost four minutes ahead of compatriot Vivian Cheruiyot, while Shalane Flanagan of the United States was third.
Keitany now is indisputably one of the greatest distance runners of all time. She has won seven major world marathons and has held three records for times during distance races. She also has gold medals in team events and half-marathons.
She is married to runner Charles Koech, and they have two children.
Lelisa, 28, held off Ethiopian compatriot Shura Kitata by two seconds to win the men’s race. A two-time winner in Boston, he crossed the line in an unofficial time of 2:05:59, just 54 seconds shy of the New York men’s record set by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2011. Defending champion Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya was third.