2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Hellen Obiri

Hellen Obiri has won the New York City Marathon twice in three years, and the second of those wins, last November, came in 2:19:51, 2:40 faster than the course record Margaret Okayo had held for 22 years. She returns on Sunday to defend the title with the fastest personal best in the women’s field, after Sifan Hassan withdrew earlier this month.

Hellen Obiri at a Glance

• Country: Kenya
• Born: Dec. 13, 1989 (age 36)
• Coach: Dathan Ritzenhein, On Athletics Club, Boulder, Colo.

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:15:53 (London, April 26, 2026)
• Half-marathon: 1:04:22 (Ras Al Khaimah, Feb. 19, 2022)
• 10,000m: 30:10.02 (Eugene, July 16, 2022)
• 5,000m: 14:18.37 (Rome, June 8, 2017)
• 3,000m: 8:20.68 (Doha, May 9, 2014)
• 1,500m: 3:57.05 (Eugene, May 31, 2014)

Records and Rankings

• New York City Marathon course record: 2:19:51 (Nov. 2, 2025), still standing. The previous record was Margaret Okayo’s 2:22:31 from 2003.
• New York City Half course record: 1:06:33 (March 15, 2026), still standing. It replaced Sharon Lokedi’s 1:07:04 from 2025.
• Kenyan 5,000m record: 14:18.37 in 2017, since beaten. Beatrice Chebet now holds it with the 13:58.06 world record she ran in 2025.
• World titles across three disciplines: 3,000m indoors (2012), 5,000m outdoors (2017 and 2019) and cross-country (2019). No other woman has won all three.
• World Athletics ranking: No. 7 in the women’s marathon

Major Marathon Podiums

• 1st, Boston 2023 (2:21:38)
• 1st, New York City 2023 (2:27:23)
• 1st, Boston 2024 (2:22:37)
• 2nd, New York City 2024 (2:24:49)
• 2nd, Boston 2025 (2:17:41)
• 1st, New York City 2025 (2:19:51)
• 2nd, London 2026 (2:15:53)

Championships

• Olympic Games: silver, 5,000m, Rio 2016; silver, 5,000m, Tokyo 2020; bronze, marathon, Paris 2024 (2:23:10)
• World Championships: gold, 5,000m, London 2017 and Doha 2019; silver, 10,000m, Eugene 2022; bronze, 1,500m, Moscow 2013
• World Indoor Championships: gold, 3,000m, Istanbul 2012
• World Cross-Country Championships: gold, Aarhus 2019

A Sprinter From Kisii Who Became a World Champion

Obiri, who grew up in Kisii in southwestern Kenya, was a national 1,500m champion within a season of taking up the event, a switch made on the advice of Noah Ngeny, the 2000 Olympic gold medalist at that distance. Before that she had been a 200m and 400m runner, good enough to earn a school place in Nairobi at 14, and she stepped away from the sport in 2006 and 2007 to study. Running was her way into the military when she returned, though as a sprinter she managed only 32nd at the 2010 Kenyan Armed Forces Cross-Country Championships, according to World Athletics.

By 2012 she was a world champion, winning the 3,000m at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul. She took 1,500m bronze outdoors in Moscow a year later and then moved up to the 5,000m, where she spent most of the next decade near the top of the sport. She won Olympic silver in Rio and again in Tokyo, and world titles in London in 2017 and Doha in 2019.

In March 2019 she added the World Cross-Country Championships, winning the senior women’s race in Aarhus, Denmark, in 36:14. No woman before her had won world titles on the indoor track, the outdoor track and in cross-country, a point Track & Field News made at the time.

Boulder and the Move to the Marathon

Obiri signed with On in January 2022 and moved her family to Boulder, Colo., where she joined Dathan Ritzenhein’s On Athletics Club. “We’ve been wanting to move to the USA for training and to live there, so for me it’s not a difficult move,” she told CNN that summer, when her daughter, Tania, was seven. She still had one more track medal in her that year, 10,000m silver at the World Championships in Eugene, before turning to the roads full time.

Her marathon debut in New York that November was a modest one by her standards, sixth in 2:25:49. Boston the following April was only her second marathon, and she won it in 2:21:38. In November 2023 she came back to New York and won there too, 2:27:23 in a tactical race, six seconds ahead of Letesenbet Gidey. Nobody had won Boston and New York in the same year since Ingrid Kristiansen in 1989, World Athletics reported.

She defended her Boston title in April 2024 in 2:22:37, the first repeat women’s champion there since Catherine Ndereba in 2005, and took bronze at the Paris Olympics that August in 2:23:10, behind Hassan and Tigst Assefa. Obiri said afterward that she had been sick on the course after missing two drinks stations, Race Results Weekly reported, and she still held off Sharon Lokedi for the medal. Three months later she was second in New York, 14 seconds behind Sheila Chepkirui.

A Course Record in New York and 2:15 in London

Lokedi got the better of her in Boston in April 2025, breaking the course record in 2:17:22 to stop Obiri from winning a third straight title, though Obiri, second in 2:17:41, ran under the old record herself. That November in New York, Obiri, Lokedi and Chepkirui were still running together at 35K, with Hassan and Fiona O’Keeffe already dropped. Chepkirui lost contact around 24 miles, and Obiri only got away from Lokedi in the final mile, on Central Park South. She won in 2:19:51, 16 seconds clear of Lokedi, with Chepkirui third in 2:20:24, and all three finished under Okayo’s old mark.

She broke another course record at the New York City Half in March, running 1:06:33, and a month later ran 2:15:53 for second on her London debut, taking more than a minute and a half off her best. Tigst Assefa won in 2:15:41, a women-only world record, and Joyciline Jepkosgei was third in 2:15:55. Obiri led for a stretch in the closing miles before Assefa pulled clear in the final run to the line. “This was my best run; I’ll be out celebrating with my family tonight,” she said after the race.

She was back in New York in June for the Mini 10K, where she finished third in 31:10 behind Agnes Ngetich, who won in a course record.

What to Expect in New York

With Hassan out, citing an illness that set back her training, Obiri is the clear favorite. Her 2:15:53 is the only personal best in the field under 2:17, and she has finished first or second in New York in each of the last three years. A third win would put her alongside Paula Radcliffe as a three-time champion, with only Grete Waitz (nine wins) and Mary Keitany (four) ahead of them.

Chepkirui, the 2024 champion and third last year, is the most obvious threat, with a best of 2:17:29. Gotytom Gebreslase, the 2022 world champion, has run 2:18:11, and Edna Kiplagat, who won here in 2010, is also entered. The fastest American is Jessica McClain at 2:20:49, while Weini Kelati makes her marathon debut.

New York has no pacemakers and five bridges to cross, so it rarely plays out like London, and Obiri has won it both ways, in a tactical 2:27:23 in 2023 and at record pace last year. “New York always brings out the best in me,” she said in August, when the field was announced.

The professional women start from Staten Island at 8:35 a.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 1, half an hour before the men. Here is how to watch the race, and our complete guide to the New York City Marathon has everything else.