ING New York City (NYC) Marathon 2009 Results: Keflezighi makes history!

Meb Keflezighi has become the 1st American ING New York City Marathon winner since the 1982 win of Alberto Salazar. Historic moment for Team USA with 6 in top 10 with Meb (1), Hall (4), Torres (7), Abdirahman (8), Arciniaga (9) and Lehmkuhle (10). This is probably the strongest Team USA performance in recent history!

Meb Keflezighi set a new personal best en route to becoming the first American men’s winner of the ING New York City Marathon since the 1982. The last time 6 US runners finished in the top 10 here was way back in 1979. Four-time Boston champ Robert K. Cheruiyot was second in 2:09:56. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco was third in 2:10:25 and Ryan Hall fourth in 2:10:36.

It was a cagey race with a large lead group of about 13 running doing most of the running at the head of the field. Initial initiatives to drive the pace were taken by Hendrik Ramaala of South Africa right at the start, and then later by Morocco’s Abderrahime Bouramdane. By around mile 20, the higher tempo let the lead pack with only 5 runners in Kwambai, Cheruiyot, Bouramdane, Kipkoech and Keflezighi. In the end, it was down to just Cheruiyot and Keflezighi  and with 2 miles to go Keflezighi’s relentless pace could not be matched.

Incidentally, this was Meb Keflezighi’s first marathon victory ever in what was also his personal best. Meb was 2nd in 2005 and 3rd in 2005 at the NYC marathon.

On the women’s side, one of history’s all-time great distance runners, Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, has won her first ING New York City Marathon. The race started with the key contenders very quickly moving out ahead of the rest of the field. The lead pack by mile five of just six runners included Radcliffe, Kosgei, Daunay, Tulu, Magdalena Boulet and Petrova.

By mile 20, it was down to just four runners, with Kosgei and Boulet dropping back. Radcliffe was finding it hard to maintain the pace of the leaders and fell off lead group by mile 25. In the end, it was down to 37 year old Tulu and 41 year old Petrova and when Tulu pushed hard towards the finishing line, Perova just could not match that pace and had to settle for second for a second year running.

About 40,000 runners started this 40th edition of the New York City marathon, which is a new record, and cements the marathon as the largest in the world. The New York City Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label Road Race.

Results (Men):

Results (Women):

Tagged as: New York