With the high knee lift and buoyant stride of a track veteran, Molly Huddle became the first American runner to win the NYC Half on Sunday, pulling away from Kenya’s Joyce Chepkirui in the final mile to win in a personal best of 1:08:31. In the men’s race, Leonard Korir, an alumnus of Iona College in the New York suburbs, used what he called his “college kick” to edge fellow Kenyan Stephen Sambu in the final few strides to earn the men’s title by one second in 1:01:06.

Despite an extraordinary year in 2014, including a third place in her NYC Half debut and an American record at 5000 meters, Huddle has to be considered an upset winner. In Prague last April, Chepkirui ran 1:06:19, the fastest half marathon personal best in the women’s field by more than two minutes.

But Huddle controlled the race throughout, and in the 10th mile, she and Chepkirui surged away from defending champion Sally Kipyego and Caroline Rotich, the NYC Half winner in 2011 and 2013. Although Chepkirui barely appeared to be laboring and seemed to be biding her time before a move to the lead, it was Huddle, on a hill coming out of a tunnel in the final mile, who separated herself from her foe with relative ease, triumphing by 11 seconds. Kipyego was third in 1:09:39.

“I just kept pressing because I felt good today,” Huddle said. “[My three close rivals] were a step behind me so I felt maybe they were tiring.” Huddle and Chepkirui had each won their most recent road races in New York; Huddle was first in the New York Mini 10K in June and Chepkirui won the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in May.

Sambu, a Tucson-based training partner of Bernard Lagat, was third in the NYC Half in 2014. On Sunday, he held a slight lead just past the halfway point and looked on the verge of breaking the men’s race open, but he was soon reabsorbed in a pack with Korir, Mexico’s Juan Luis Barrios, and Lusapho April of South Africa. The battle in the final straightaway came down to Sambu and Korir. By a slight but definite margin, Sambu appeared to have the race wrapped up until Korir slipped by him in the last couple of strides.

Korir has previously trained with and raced against Sambu, who he called “a very tough guy,” and said, “I knew if I stayed close to him, just hung in there, I would a chance of winning." Korir, 28, elected to “wait until the last 50 meters and see if I can use my college kick.”

Barrios and April were third and fourth in 1:01:14 and 1:01:21, respectively. Andrew Bumbalough, fifth in 1:02:04, was the first American man to finish, three seconds ahead of sixth-place Dathan Ritzenhein, who will run the Boston Marathon on April 20.

Meb Keflezighi was eighth in 1:02:17 and was happy to use the race as a benchmark “to be able to check where I am” as he prepares for his Boston title defense. “I finished strong; I was competitive at the beginning,” Keflezighi said. At this race last year, he finished 10th in 1:02:53 five weeks before winning Boston.

Other Americans who used the race as a tune-up for Boston included Desiree Linden (1:12:36), Adrianna Nelson (1:13:15), Fernando Cabada (1:03:23), Jeff Eggleston (1:04:03), and Matt Tegenkamp (1:11:13, after hitting 15K in 44:01 with Keflezighi).

Full results are here.

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Related:

From December: Molly Huddle's Amazing Year

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