Kenyans dominate LA Marathon in second-largest field in history

The 39th Los Angeles Marathon drew runners from all 50 states and 70 nations. Image: Los Angeles Marathon/Facebook

LOS ANGELES – Kenyans dominated Sunday’s 39th Los Angeles Marathon, taking the top two spots in the men’s field and the top spot in the women’s race in the second-largest field in the event’s history.

Dominic Ngeno was the men’s winner in 2 hours, 11 minutes, while Stacy Ndiwa captured her second consecutive women’s title in 2:25:28.97.

Ngeno finished 5.5 seconds ahead of his countryman Cosmas Kiplimo, who finished second in 2:11:05.55, while Volha Mazuronak a Belarusian who lives in Los Angeles, was second for the women, completing the 26-mile, 385-yard “Stadium of the Stars” course in 2:25:48.65.

One person required “life-threatening” medical care, according to Unified LA, which provides emergency public information regarding large scale incidents and planned events where multiple Los Angeles area agencies are under a Joint Information Center.

Nine people suffered minor injuries, according to Unified LA.

LA Marathon winner Dominic Ngeno from Kenya (right) with Fil-Am journalist and community leader Janet Nepales. Photo from Ruben Nepales

Additional information was not immediately available.

The marathon reached its capacity of 26,000 entrants Friday, trailing only the 2020 race, which had 27,150 entrants, organizers said. The race has topped 20,000 entrants 22 of the past 25 years, with the only exceptions coming in 2009, when the race was run on Memorial Day for the lone time, 2021, when it was delayed until November because of restrictions prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, and 2022 when it returned to its traditional March date.

Dan Cruz, the marathon’s head of communications, attributed the rising fields to the popularity of social running clubs throughout Greater Los Angeles and the participation of the disc jockey and music producer Diplo in last year’s race.

According to Cruz, 40% of the participants were running their first marathon while 56% had not run the Los Angeles Marathon before.

The race drew runners from all 50 states and 70 nations, three more than last year, Cruz said.

The runners ranged in age from 12-year-old seventh-graders running as part of the Students Run LA program to 87-year-old Claude Bruni, a retired auto repair shop owner from Los Angeles.

The race began at Dodger Stadium at 6:30 a.m. with the wheelchair racers and a temperature of 53 degrees, according to Unified LA.

The hand crank racers started at 6:35 a.m., followed a few minutes later by the women’s elite field and then the elite men’s field at 7 a.m.

Mayor Karen Bass was the honorary starter.

From Dodger Stadium, runners headed through downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood and Brentwood then back through Westwood to Century City, with the finish line for the “Stadium to the Stars” course on Santa Monica Boulevard between Avenue of the Stars and Century Park East.

The course was unchanged from 2023, the first time since 2020 the course has not changed, Cruz said.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, the winner of the inaugural Olympic women’s marathon during the 1984 Los Angeles Games, held the finish line tape.

Ndiwa also won a $10,000 bonus in the Marathon Chase, in which the elite women start 17 minutes ahead of the men, with the overall first finisher receiving the bonus. The time difference was “determined by a close assessment of the makeup of this year’s professional fields,” according to veteran running analyst Toni Reavis, who has been a commentator on each Los Angeles Marathon telecast.

Ndiwa also won the bonus last year.

The difference was initially going to be 17 minutes, 15 seconds, but adjusted after Belay Asefa Bedada of Ethiopia, who had the fastest personal best time among the men’s field, had to withdraw after contracting typhoid.

Bianca Nepales, vice president for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at LionsGate, finished her first LA Marathon with flying colors. Photo from Ruben Nepales

The chase was part of the marathon from 2004 to 2014, with women winning seven times and men four. It was discontinued in 2015 when the race served as the USA Marathon Championships. It was revived in 2022 with women winning all three times since its revival.

The men’s and women’s winners will each receive $6,000, the second-place finishers $2,500 and third-place finishers $1,500. The men’s and women’s wheelchair winners will each receive $2,500.

The men’s race has been won by a Kenyan 22 times since 1999, with Ethiopians winning the other four, including 2023 when Jemal Yimer won. Yimer opted to run in Sunday’s Seoul Marathon instead of defending his title. A U.S. runner last won in 1994.

Hassen Hassen of Seattle was the top American male finisher Sunday, finishing sixth in 2:22:18 in his first marathon.

“It was good experience,” Hassen said. “Hopefully (I) can come back next year and have a better time.”

Hassen said after the eighth mile he got “a really bad cramp.”

“I had my gels,” Hassen said. “They kind of helped out a little bit.” African women have won 12 of the last 15 races, including in 2023 when Ndiwa won in a personal best two hours, 31 minutes.

A U.S. runner last won the women’s race in 1994. Makena Morley of Bozeman, Montana was the top U.S. finisher in the women’s race, finishing fifth in a personal record time of 2:30:24. Her previous personal best was 2:30:28 in the 2022 Chicago Marathon.

“I had a big surge on Mile 15, then dropped off around Mile 16,” the 27-year-old Morley said. “I tried to kind of hang in there but those hills are definitely getting to me. I didn’t do a ton of hill practice for this, probably should. The last six are pretty tough so I was happy to be able to kind of finish strong as I did.”

Mile 15 begins just west of Alta Loma Road on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, heads west to San Vicente Boulevard, then south to Santa Monica Boulevard, ending just west of Robertson Boulevard Mile 16 continues along Santa Monica Boulevard to Doheny Drive, bordering Beverly Hills, south to Burton Way, and ends one block west at Oakhurst Drive.

The field included 95 legacy runners — 84 men and 11 women — who have run all 38 previous editions of the race. Golden Stars were placed along the course in their honor as a precursor to the Los Angeles Marathon Hall of Fame.

The late Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge was also honored during Sunday’s race. A uniquely designed Golden Star was presented to his family during Saturday’s news conference and the race’s Mile 7 has been renamed as the Tom LaBonge Mile.

Mile 7 begins on Glendale Boulevard, just before Santa Ynez Street, in Echo Park, includes the Angelus Church, and ends on Sunset Boulevard, just before Silver Lake Boulevard.

There were more than 3,500 runners from Students Run LA, an after-school mentoring and physical fitness program for at-risk middle and high school students.

As of 2 p.m., an estimated 85% of the runners had finished the course, and streets up to mile 17 had reopened, according to Unified LA.

The race has 92 charity partners, with runners raising more than $3 million.

Its premier charities are:
— Angel City Pit Bulls, which is dedicated to creating a better future for pit bulls through education, public advocacy, adoptions and owner support;
— Students Run LA;
— Team TMF, the fundraising team for the McCourt Foundation, which describes its mission as striving to cure neurological diseases while empowering communities to build a healthier world. The foundation operates the race; and
— Team World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization conducting relief, development and advocacy activities seeking to tackle the causes of poverty and injustice in nearly 100 nations.

The Neighborhood Nip Foundation, was a first-time featured charity. All funds raised will support the reconstruction of the Nipsey Hussle Plaza in Hyde Park, which will be the site of the foundation’s headquarters. The foundation plans to begin youth programming this year.

Empowering Leadership in Latina Athletes, which seeks to empower and support young Latinas to become leaders of tomorrow through sports and academic excellence, was another first-time featured charity. It was founded by Lilly Travieso, a Cornell University infielder from Burbank and Alemany High School, and her mother Patty.

Other featured charities were:
— The American Cancer Society;
— American Foundation for Suicide Prevention;
— Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish, faith-based recovery center which focuses on the spiritual healing of addiction
— Children’s Hospital Los Angeles;
— Kitten Rescue, which rescues cats and kittens from the streets of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Animal Services shelters;
— North Valley Caring Services, a North Hills-based community center that offers free academic and enrichment programs for children ages 5 to 18; operates a drive-through food pantry; conducts a thrice-weekly shower and breakfast program; provides a place to park overnighter for people living in their cars; provides approximately 5,000 meals a month to families experiencing homelessness living in motels and the streets in the Northeast San Fernando Valley; conducts classes in English as a Second Language, parenting classes and how to start a business;
— Students Off And Running (SOAR), which provides no-cost Los Angeles Marathon training to hundreds of children in need living in the Santa Clarita Valley; and
— the UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation. (CNS)