Beating Paris-Bound Clayton Young, This Kenyan Marathon Runner Took the Win Home at NYC Half Marathon

Mar 17, 2024 | 9:35 AM EDT

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The United Airlines 2024 NYC Half Marathon is one of the most exciting half marathons, winding through famous locations like Central Park and Times Square. Not only does it attract top global competitors, but the difficulty in getting a spot adds to the athlete’s potential.

On a brisk morning full of competitiveness, the tracks were filled with Olympic qualifiers like Clayton Young along with Conner Mantz, Paralympians, among others. However, with a fantastic time of 1:00:25, one able-bodied Kenyan phenom became the men’s open-class champion and made an amazing debut at the NYC Half.

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NYC Half Marathon becomes the stomping ground for a Kenyan juggernaut

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Now, a fresh update on X posted by @CitiusMag shared a picture of the Kenyan champion captioned, “How is he Abel to do that? Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba cruises to victory at the New York City Half Marathon in 1:00:25 to beat out runner up Zouhair Talbi by 16 seconds (and also the rest of the field)!”

How is he Abel to do that? 🤔💭
Kenya’s Abel Kipchumba cruises to victory at the New York City Half Marathon in 1:00:25 to beat out runner up Zouhair Talbi by 16 seconds (and also the rest of the field)! 🇰🇪🗽 pic.twitter.com/RCoFFJH9It
— CITIUS MAG (@CitiusMag) March 17, 2024

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The 13.1-mile marathon traveled through Prospect Park crossing the Manhattan Bridge, then racing down the Lower East Side, up to Midtown, and into Times Square before finishing in Central Park. For half-marathoners, the Olympics criteria are under 1:03:00. Meanwhile, Geert Schipper, competing in the men’s wheelchair division, crossed the finish line to record his first-ever half-marathon victory.

In the women’s open division, Norwegian Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal bested with a time of 1:09:09 taking her first-half title. Fellow Olympians like Des Linden, Jenny Simpson, Edna Kiplagat, and Malindi Elmore, as well as World Champion Fatima Gardadi, competed in the women’s event. In the women’s wheelchair division, USA’s Susannah Scaroni defended her title, finishing at 53:50.

It definitely wasn’t an easy job winning in a venue that hosted over 25K mix of runners from amateurs to stellar world-class champions like the first and second Olympic Trial marathon finishers Conner Mantz who clocked 2:09:05 and Clayton Young who finished 2:09:06, both only ones to easily fit under the Olympic “A” standard of 2:18:00. The Brigham Young University athletes also qualified for trials from their 2023 Bank of America Chicago Marathon results. The Paris athletics lineup begins to fill up faster than ever, with more qualifiers heading to Paris in the hope of gold.