Jessica McClain finishes in top three for women in NYC Marathon, first American since 2018

Sheila Chepkirui hung the final right back into Central Park with the lead and defending champ Hellen Obiri wasn’t far behind.

Then Chepkirui pulled away on West Drive from her fellow Kenyan. The 35-year-old runner crossed first in Sunday’s New York City Marathon for the second time in three years.

So it looked as if Obiri was going to finish second in this 50th anniversary edition since the race expanded beyond the park and went through the five boroughs.

But since the 25th mile on this 26.2-mile journey, an American had been making her push from third, gaining ground on the leaders. And now here was Jessica McClain, a 34-year-old Arizona native, closing on Obiri.

“I saw she was behind me like 10 meters to [the] finish line,” Obiri said. “So I tried to sprint, but she was coming so fast.”

No American woman had finished among the top three here since 2018. Kenyans had swept the first three places two years running. But McClain prevented that, passing Obiri and finishing as the only non-Kenyan among the top five.

Chepkirui came in at 2 hours, 24 minutes, 36 seconds. McClain arrived at 2:24:42, 6.19 seconds back to be exact, and Obiri finished in 2:24:43.

“It’s not over until it’s over,” McClain said.

A little while later, Andreas Almgren turned himself into a winner in his first try at a marathon. The 31-year-old Swede, the reigning World Half Marathon champ and 2026 European 10,000-meter champ, crossed at 2:06:01, followed by Yemaneberhan Crippa of Italy at 2:06:14 and Kamohelo Mofolo of Lesotho in southern Africa at 2:06:26.

Defending champ Benson Kipruto of Kenya arrived fourth at 2:06:27. Zouhair Talbi, originally from Morocco but now an American citizen, was the top male finisher representing the United States. He placed sixth at 2:06:43, a course record for an American.

“I did not feel really as fresh as I hoped to, but, yeah, tried my best today and came with sixth place,” Talbi said. “Happy with that.”

Back around the start of the 2020s, McClain wasn’t happy with this professional running life and took a breather. She said her body wasn’t working for her.

“I found my way back very naturally and ended up wanting to run a marathon to celebrate my 30th birthday [in 2022] and realized that competitive nature was still buried deep, deep, deep down,” McClain said.

The former seven-time All-American runner at Stanford just missed making the U.S. Olympic team in the marathon in 2024, then ran New York for the first time and came in eighth — Chepkirui won it — and second among the American women.

Earlier this year, McClain ran 2:20:49 in placing fifth overall in Boston, a personal best and an American women’s course record.

And on this day in NYC, when a little more than 60,000 were expected to run, she was leading at the half-marathon point. But the front pack was 11 deep and only 1.79 seconds stood between first and 11th.

The lead was exchanged several times, but the race remained close. McClain led Chepkirui by 24 hundredths of a second after 20 miles, but the top eight runners were within 1.31 seconds.

After 22 miles, it was Chepkirui running a close 1-2 with Obiri in Harlem. They stayed that way down Fifth Avenue, then into the park, then out of the park at Central Park South, then back into the park by Columbus Circle for the stretch run.

“The last mile I was with Hellen and I knew Hellen was really strong,” Chepkirui said, “so I had to push up to the finish line.”

Almgren was seen pushing and pulling away on Central Park South. He had taken in this marathon in person last year.

“On the night of that race, I just texted my manager like, ‘I want to do this next year,’ ” Almgren said. “ . . . And here we are a year later and I won this race.”

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair division here for a record eighth time. Catherine Debrunner, who’s also from Switzerland, won the women’s wheelchair division here for the second time.

“I think the vibes here are electric, like the city who never sleeps, we say,” Debrunner said. “And it’s just a very spectacular experience to race here.”