2026 New York City Marathon Elite Field: Sheila Chepkirui

Hellen Obiri has lost the New York City Marathon only once since she first won it in 2023, and the woman who beat her is back on the start line on Sunday, Nov. 1. Sheila Chepkirui won in New York on her first attempt in 2024, leading Obiri through Central Park and holding her off over the last half-mile to win by 14 seconds. A year later she ran more than four minutes faster on the same course and finished third as Obiri took her title back with a course record. Now 35, Chepkirui has the second-fastest personal best in the women’s field since Sifan Hassan withdrew, and she arrives off a second straight win at the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in March.

Sheila Chepkirui by the Numbers

Personal Bests

• Marathon: 2:17:29 (Valencia, Dec. 4, 2022)
• Half-marathon: 1:04:36 (Ras Al Khaimah, Feb. 19, 2022)
• 10K (road): 29:46 (Valencia, Jan. 12, 2020)
• 10,000m: 30:45.81 (2021)
• 5,000m: 14:54.05 (London, Aug. 13, 2017)
• 1,500m: 4:12.29 (Marrakesh, 2005)

Marathon Record

• Valencia Marathon, 2022: third, 2:17:29 (debut)
• London Marathon, 2023: fourth, 2:18:51
• Berlin Marathon, 2023: second, 2:17:49
• London Marathon, 2024: sixth, 2:19:31
• New York City Marathon, 2024: first, 2:24:35
• Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2025: first, 2:20:40
• New York City Marathon, 2025: third, 2:20:24
• Nagoya Women’s Marathon, 2026: first, 2:21:54

World Marathon Majors Podiums

• Wins: New York City (2024)
• Second place: Berlin (2023)
• Third place: New York City (2025)

Championship Medals

• World Youth Championships: 1,500m gold (2005), 1,500m bronze (2007)
• African Championships: 5,000m gold (2016)
• African Cross Country Championships: senior silver (2016)
• Commonwealth Games: 10,000m bronze (2022)
• Best world championship finish: seventh, 5,000m (London, 2017)

A World Youth Champion Who Took the Long Way Round

Chepkirui, born on Dec. 27, 1990, is from Kipchimchim in Kenya’s Kericho County, still trains around Kericho, and serves as a soldier in the Kenya Defence Forces. Her first big result came at 14, when she won the 1,500m at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Marrakesh in 4:12.29, beating Japan’s Yuriko Kobayashi. She took bronze at the same championships two years later, ran at the 2008 World Junior Championships, and was then missing from international competition for the next seven years.

She came back as a distance runner, and in 2016 she took silver in the senior race at the African Cross Country Championships in Yaoundé, won the Kenyan 5,000m title and then the African 5,000m title in Durban in 15:05.45. At the 2017 World Championships in London she finished seventh in the 5,000m in 14:54.05, a time she has not bettered since.

Valencia was where she first showed what she could do on the roads, running 29:46 for 10K there in January 2020, and she followed it with 1:04:36 for third at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in February 2022. That September she won the Brașov 10K in Romania in 30:07. The world record for a women-only race was 30:01 at the time, so she missed it by just six seconds. She did not start at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, but she still came away from that summer with a medal, a bronze in the 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Eight Marathons and Never Worse Than Sixth

Her marathon debut came in Valencia in December 2022, where she ran 2:17:29 for third behind Amane Beriso and Letesenbet Gidey, and almost four years on that is still her best. She was fourth in London the following April and then second in Berlin in September 2023, on the day Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 for a world record, before a sixth place in London in 2024.

In New York that November the women went through 5K in a gentle 18:16 and there were still 20 of them together at 10K. Chepkirui sat at the front through halfway in 1:13:59, pushed on the Queensboro Bridge to break the pack up, and kept pushing over the next 10K so that only five were left by 35K. She strung them out behind her as they came into Central Park and ran 16:24 between 35K and 40K, the fastest split of the day, according to LetsRun. With about 800m to go she looked over her shoulder. “I saw she was not coming,” she said of Obiri afterwards. She won in 2:24:35, took home $100,000, and explained her approach simply: “Here it’s not about time, it’s about winning.” Julien Di Maria was setting her training then, and that build was the first time she had done any weight work, which her agent, Davor Savija, saw as the reason she had so much left in Central Park.

Her 2025 started in Japan, where she won the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in 2:20:40, 19 seconds ahead of Sayaka Sato. When she returned to New York in November, Chepkirui, Obiri and Sharon Lokedi were running the race from early on, and American Fiona O’Keeffe was the only other woman still with them at 13.1 miles, reached in 1:11:01. Obiri and Lokedi got away from Chepkirui in the last few miles, and she finished third in 2:20:24 behind Obiri’s course record of 2:19:51 and Lokedi’s 2:20:07. Margaret Okayo’s 2:22:31 from 2003 had been the course record until that morning, and all three Kenyans went under it.

Back in Nagoya this March, on a windy morning with the temperature at just 9 C, five women were still in contention at 30K. Chepkirui made her move at 39K, Citizen Digital reported, and Sato was the one runner able to answer it. The two raced each other almost to the line before Chepkirui kept her title by two seconds, 2:21:54 to 2:21:56. “I’m very happy to defend my title,” she said.

What to Expect From Sheila Chepkirui in New York

The women’s field lost its fastest runner when Sifan Hassan and Fiona O’Keeffe withdrew earlier this month, which leaves Obiri with the fastest best in the race. The defending champion ran 2:15:53 for second in London in April behind Assefa’s women-only world record. Chepkirui’s 2:17:29 is next on the list, ahead of 2022 world champion Gotytom Gebreslase (2:18:11), with Weini Kelati making her debut and world bronze medalist Julia Paternain also entered.

Her two trips to New York show the two ways this race can go. When the pace was slow and the race came down to who was strongest over the last 10K, she won. When the race was run fast, with the leaders through halfway in 1:11:01 and quicker still over the second half, she stayed with Obiri and Lokedi past 35K and finished just 33 seconds behind. A cautious early pace on Sunday would suit her, and so would anything that turns the race into a long grind through the Bronx and up Fifth Avenue, where her strength showed two years ago.

She has followed the same plan as last year, winning in Nagoya in March before turning her attention to New York, and her worst result on this course is still a place on the podium.

The professional women start from Staten Island at 8:35 a.m. ET. Our viewing guide has every way to watch, our complete guide to the race covers the course, and we will follow the elite races mile by mile on our live coverage page.