Fionnuala McCormack finishes 10th at New York City Marathon

McCormack clocked the fifth quickest time of her career in what was her New York City Marathon debut.

Sun, 02 Nov, 2025 - 16:34

Cathal Dennehy

Fionnuala McCormack produced a strong performance to finish 10th at the New York City Marathon on Sunday, the 41-year-old clocking 2:27:00.

Just seven weeks on from her ninth-place finish in the World Championships marathon in Tokyo, where she ran 2:30:16 in oppressive heat, McCormack clocked the fifth quickest time of her career in what was her New York City Marathon debut.

Victory went to Hellen Obiri in a course record of 2:19:51, with compatriots Sharon Lokedi (2:20:07) and Sheila Chepkirui (2:20:24) rounding out a Kenyan sweep of the podium.

With cool, calm, sunny conditions in the Big Apple, it was a good day to run fast, although New York is a notoriously difficult course to produce quick times given its rolling hills. McCormack nonetheless set out with her personal best of 2:23:46 clearly in mind, passing 10km on pace in 33:56 and she was 13th when she hit halfway in 1:12:05. By 30km she had moved up to 11th and she cracked the top-10 in the closing kilometres as she arrived in Central Park.

It marked another strong showing against the world’s best from the mother of three from Wicklow, whose best ever finish at a Marathon Major was fifth in Chicago in 2019 where she ran 2:26:47. In Paris last year, she became the first Irishwoman to compete at five Olympics and McCormack can extend that record to six in Los Angeles in 2028, when she will be 43.

McCormack is the most-capped Irish female athlete in history and she’s been running championship marathons for over a decade, with her best global result over any surface coming at this year’s World Championships. “Usually I’m like, ‘I have to come back again to redeem myself,’ whereas this time, I don’t really feel like that,” she said in Tokyo. “I picked off as many people as I could. Everybody I could see in front of me, I think I caught so there wasn’t a whole lot more I could do.”

The men’s race in New York boiled down to a thrilling duel between Kenyans Benson Kipruto and Alexander Mutiso, with Kipruto holding off his rival by just inches – both men clocking 2:08:09 and throwing up the closest finish in the race’s history. Albert Korir took third in 2:08:57. Kenyan great Eliud Kipchoge ran what he says will be his final elite-level marathon, the two-time Olympic champion clocking 2:14:36 for 17th and receiving a rousing send-off from the crowd as he reached the finish in Central Park.