Upon breaking the tape on a pristine St. Patrick’s Day morning in the City of Angels, Dominic Ngeno dropped to his knees and kissed the ground in celebration of winning the 39th Los Angeles Marathon.
The 26-year-old Kenyan separated from countryman Cosmas Kiplimo with a little over three miles to go on the 26.2-mile route that started at Dodger Stadium and ended on the Avenue of the Stars in Century City. Ngeno prevailed by five seconds in 2:10:20 — almost three minutes faster than last year’s winner, Jemal Yimer of Ethiopia.
Read more: L.A. Marathon results: Check out the top finishers in the men’s and women’s fields
Ngeno clocked a personal-best 2:07:26 to place third at the Eindhoven Marathon in the Netherlands in October and was ninth in 2:11:23 at the Milan Marathon last April. Ethiopian Markos Geneti set the L.A. Marathon record (1:06:35) in 2011, but Sunday was all about the Kenyans.
Stacy Ndiwa repeated as the women’s winner in a personal-best 2:25:28, pulling away from runner-up Olga Mazuronak in the last mile to win by 20 seconds while shaving 5:32 off last year’s effort.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
