Former Seattle resident & Brooks Beast Jessica McClain takes second at NYC Marathon...
NEW YORK--Former Brooks Beast Jessica McClain (Paul Merca file photo) rallied over the final miles to finish second at the TCS New York City Marathon Sunday morning.
More importantly, McClain's second place finish earned her an automatic qualifying spot for the 2028 Olympics, pending of course, the outcome of the 2028 US Olympic Trials.
A top five finish in a World Athletics Platinum Label marathon (essentially the World Marathon Majors races, plus a few select races designated by World Athletics) is considered the same as meeting the Olympic Games qualifying standard, which won't be published until December.
The women's pro elite race at the New York Marathon started out slowly with the field going through the first five kilometers in 18:23. McClain actually led at the half marathon mark, covered in 1:13:53, with ten others directly behind her.
Through 30k, the group of eleven stayed together, but over the next five kilometers, the group of eleven was whittled down to seven.
At that point, the real racing began, as defending NYC Marathon champ Hellen Obiri and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya pulled away, with McClain trying to hang on, with the other four in the group of seven getting dropped.
Chepkirui and Obiri were together at 40k, crossed in 2:17:39, with McClain four seconds behind.
As the trio entered Central Park, Chepkirui opened a gap on the defending champion, while Obiri inexplicably did not use the tangents to run a shorter line to the finish.
McClain took advantage of Obiri's late race gaffe and snuck past her over the last ten meters of the race.
Chepkirui took the win in 2:24:46, with McClain second in 2:24:42 and Obiri third in 2:24:43.
McClain became the first US woman to finish in the top three in New York since Shalane Flanagan in 2018.
“It was a really fun, magical day out there. New York, you never know what to expect and I honestly didn’t feel like amazing through 18, and just kind of had to stick in it and adjust as I went,” McClain told ESPN. “Top five was top of mind, then podium. I was just like, stick with it. And then all of a sudden Hellen was coming back to me, so I don’t really know what happened, but I couldn’t be happier right now.”
In the men's pro race, Sweden's Andreas Almgren won his debut marathon performance, as the reigning world half marathon champion and European 10,000m gold medallist, eased away from Italy’s Yeman Crippa in Central Park to win by 13 seconds in 2:06:01.
Zouhair Talbi was the first American across the line in sixth in 2:06:43.
Seattle Pacific alum Turner Wiley of Club Northwest was 25th in 2:12:24 and got under the US Olympic Marathon trials standard of 2;16:00.
NOTE: The New York Road Runners contributed to this report.
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