World 10km record holder Rhonex Kipruto is the winner of this year’s United Airline New York half-marathon held on Sunday in New York City.

Kipruto led a 1-2 Kenyan podium finish after taking charge of the race at 15km mark and running for the rest of the race solo and cutting the tape in a time of 1:00.30 ahead of Edward Cheserek, who finished second in 1:00:37, while Ethiopia’s Teshome Melkone sealed the podium in 1:00:40.

“I had trained well for this marathon and I was hopeful that I will win and this was my first race this season, as I wanted to gauge my performance as I set my eyes on the World Championships slated for July 16-24 in Eugene, USA,” an elated Kipruto said.

Kipruto was a late inclusion in the Tokyo Olympics team for the 10,000m race after the withdrawal of Geoffrey Kamworor which led to his dismal performance where he finished ninth in 27:52.

In 2019, Kipruto won a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, finishing the 10,000 meters in 26:50.32 behind Joshua Cheptegei and Yomif Kejelcha.

Earlier in the year, he won the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta with a time of 27:01, breaking the 23-year-old course record and setting the record for the fastest 10Km time ever on American soil.

He was also sixth at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Denmark that year and won a silver medal. In the women category, Ethiopia’s Senbere Teferi emerged victorious 1:07:35 ahead of Kenya’s Urine Cheptai who clocked 1:07:37 as Great Britain’s Karoline Grovdal sealed the podium places in 1:08:07.

A total of 25,000 runners took part in the marathon and it was the first New York Road Runners race back at full scale since the pandemic began.