2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Abdi Nageeye

Abdi Nageeye will make his sixth straight start at the New York City Marathon on Nov. 1. He won it in 2024, pulling clear of Evans Chebet in Central Park to become the first Dutchman to take the men’s title, and he comes back at 37 with an Olympic silver medal, a Dutch record of 2:04:20 and, by his own account, a healthy body again after injury ended his title defense last year.

Abdi Nageeye at a Glance

Country: Netherlands. Born: March 2, 1989, in Somalia (age 37). Team: dsm-firmenich Running Team.

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:04:20 (London, April 27, 2025)
• Half-marathon: 59:55 (Great North Run, Sept. 8, 2019, point-to-point course, not record-eligible)
• 10K: 28:08 (Brunssum, April 7, 2013)

Records

• Dutch marathon record: 2:04:20 (London, 2025), still standing
• Dutch half-marathon record: 1:00:21 (The Hague, 2024), still standing
• Dutch 10K road record: 28:08 (2013), since beaten. Tim Verbaandert ran 27:17 in Lille in April 2026.
• New York City Marathon: first Dutch winner of the men’s race (2024)

Major Marathon Podiums

• 3rd, New York 2022 (2:10:31)
• 1st, New York 2024 (2:07:39)

Other Marathon Wins

• Rotterdam 2022 (2:04:56)
• Rotterdam 2024 (2:04:45)

Championships

• Silver, Tokyo Olympics marathon, Sapporo 2021 (2:09:58)

From Somalia to the Dutch Team

Nageeye was born in Somalia and has lived in the Netherlands twice. The first time, he was a six-year-old refugee there with his brother, and four years on the two of them moved to Syria and later back to Somalia. He returned in his teens, by way of Ethiopia, and grew up with an adoptive family in Oldebroek, a small town in Gelderland.

Football was his sport until a 5K he ran in about 17 minutes as a teenager steered him toward running. In 2007 he wore a Dutch vest in the junior race at the European Cross-Country Championships, and over the following seasons he raced on the track and across country, finishing fourth over 5,000m at the 2009 European under-23 championships and running the 10,000m at the 2012 European Championships.

His first major marathons came in 2016, when he was eighth in Boston and 11th at the Rio Olympics, and in Amsterdam the following October he ran 2:08:16, the first of several Dutch records he has set over the distance. He spent years training in Kaptagat, Kenya, with Eliud Kipchoge’s group under coach Patrick Sang before moving his base to Iten. “From Eliud, I learned to take my time and focus on the progress,” he said in 2021.

Olympic Silver in Sapporo

Nageeye ran 2:06:17 for fourth in Rotterdam in 2019, and at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, where the marathon was moved north to Sapporo to escape the heat, he ran the best championship race of his life. Kipchoge won on Aug. 8, 2021, by 80 seconds, and Nageeye was second in 2:09:58. What people remember is the last few hundred meters. His teammate, Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, was cramping behind him in a fight with Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono for bronze, and instead of racing away Nageeye slowed, looked back and beckoned him on. Abdi held on for the bronze in 2:10:00, with Cherono two seconds behind.

“In the last 800 metres I wanted to go, but I thought about Bashir and I was like, let him come close,” Nageeye told Reuters afterward.

Five Straight Years in New York

New York became his autumn marathon from that year on. He was fifth on his debut in November 2021 in 2:11:39, third in 2022 behind Chebet and Shura Kitata, and fourth in 2023, the year Tamirat Tola set the course record of 2:04:58. His fast times came in the spring, in Rotterdam. He won there in 2:04:56 in April 2022 and again in 2024, sitting on Amedework Walelegn’s shoulder through the last 2K and kicking past him in the final kilometer to win by five seconds in 2:04:45.

At the Paris Olympics that August, Nageeye was bumped on the right leg at a drink station around halfway, felt his thigh go dead and stopped at 36K. He later told NOS that he had cut hip thrusts, a hip-strength exercise, from his program to make room for uphill and downhill work on the hilly Paris course, and that with his body in perfect condition he would have been on the podium. Paris “really was one of my biggest disappointments ever,” he said after winning New York.

Three months later he won New York at the fourth attempt. His plan, he said, was to survive the first 36K and only race after that, and he and Chebet were still together in the closing miles before Nageeye broke away in the park to win in 2:07:39, six seconds ahead, with Geoffrey Kamworor, who is back in this year’s field, in fifth. “At the finish, I was like, am I dreaming? I won New York,” he said after the race.

Injury and the Road Back

At the 2025 London Marathon the following April, won by Sabastian Sawe in 2:02:27, Nageeye was racing for the podium when cramp hit his left leg after 39K. He finished fourth, losing third place to Alexander Mutiso in a photo finish, but his 2:04:20 took 25 seconds off his own Dutch record.

At the end of September he pulled out of the Copenhagen Half Marathon after a scan found fluid in his hamstring and groin, and he did much of his build-up on a bike and in the gym. He still started New York wearing bib No. 1, but his hip and hamstring began to hurt once the pace lifted, and he stepped off rather than risk a worse injury on the hills. He told NOS it was frustrating, but that he had stopped for his health because he wanted to run a few more marathons. Benson Kipruto won that race, beating Mutiso in the closest finish in its history.

His first marathon back came in Boston in April. Still working his way back from the hamstring problem, he let the lead pack go early and ran his own pace, finishing 21st in 2:08:13 on the day John Korir won in a course record of 2:01:52. Nageeye told NOS he had been at 75 to 80 percent of his strength, and that what mattered most was finishing healthy, with no pain in the leg at all.

What to Expect in New York

Nageeye is one of three former champions in the men’s field, alongside Kipruto and Kamworor, who won in 2017 and 2019. Kipruto’s 2:02:16 is the fastest best in the race, ahead of Deresa Geleta’s 2:02:38 and CyBrian Kotut’s 2:03:22, and Nageeye’s 2:04:20 sits fifth on the list, just behind Zouhair Talbi, whose 2:03:45 came on Boston’s point-to-point course in April. The American record holder, Conner Mantz, is also in the field.

The last three men’s races in New York were won in 2:04:58, 2:07:39 and 2:08:09, and the course, with its bridges and the long drag up Fifth Avenue before Central Park, tends to reward whoever is strongest over the final miles. That suits Nageeye, who has been in the top five in all four of his New York finishes and won his title with a late move in the park. He said after Boston that he was healthy again, though that race did not show whether he is back to the shape that won him this title two years ago.

“Once you’ve experienced what it feels like to win there, you just want to do it again,” he said in August. Our guide to how to watch the New York City Marathon has the start times and broadcast details, and we will be following the race on our live updates page.