Molly Huddle successfully defended her NYC Half Marathon title by a historically narrow margin Sunday morning, edging Joyce Chepkirui at the tape by 0.08 seconds in what was the closest finish for men or women in the 11-year history of the race.

Huddle’s winning time of 1:07:41 set an American record for a women-only race and shattered the previous event record by 50 seconds.

In the men’s race, Stephen Sambu, who last year just missed the NYC Half title when his Kenyan countryman Leonard Korir caught him at the tape, broke away from Wilson Chebet of Kenya and Sam Chelanga of the U.S. eight and a half miles into the race and cruised to victory in 1:01:16. (Korir was not in New York to defend his title.) Sambu’s 19-second win over second-place Chebet was the widest margin of victory in the men’s race since 2010.

It was the second time in seven months that Huddle, the best female distance runner in the U.S., finished a race within a 0.10 seconds of a competitor. Last August at the world track and field championships in Beijing, Huddle’s now-infamous premature celebration in the 10,000 meters cost her the bronze medal, as she was nipped at the line by her American teammate Emily Infeld.

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This time, Huddle’s performance over the final few meters yielded the result she wanted, but it was not without controversy. In her final two strides, Huddle extended her left arm out to the side as if to physically hold off a fast-charging Chepkirui, who had pulled even with Huddle during the final sprint to the finish line.

“I kind of was just trying to get my body across the line and not fall at the same time,” said Huddle, now 13-0 in road races since finishing third in her debut half marathon in New York in 2014. “I wasn’t even conscious of what my arms were doing. I was just trying to get there.”

Chepkirui, second to Huddle for the second-straight year, gave no indication that she felt Huddle’s apparent stiff-arm had cost her the win. “I’m happy for my friend,” she said. The 27-year-old from Kenya will race the Boston Marathon in four weeks, and said she felt her time—officially 1:07:41, the same as Huddle’s—bodes well for her performance there.

Chepkirui led a pack of nine women through an opening mile of 5:44, a pedestrian pace even considering the Central Park hills. The leaders then picked up the pace by 30 seconds a mile, and by 5K, reached in 16:42, the pack was down to five, including eventual third-place finisher Diane Nukuri of Burundi, the former All-American for Iowa, and the 2011 and 2013 champion Caroline Rotich of Kenya, who placed fifth.

With a 4:58 sixth mile, Chepkirui and Huddle broke away from the rest of the field. Chepkirui continued to push the pace down the West Side Highway, with Huddle alternately tucked off her right shoulder or by her side. “I was just trying to stay with Joyce,” Huddle said. “She was running below five minutes a lot of the miles. I just thought, if I hang for a long time, I don’t know if I can beat her today, but I will PR.”

Following an opening 10K of 32:51, the duo covered the second 10 kilometers of the race in 31:14—nearly 30 seconds faster than Huddle ran for 10,000 meters at the track world championships.

Emerging from the Battery Park tunnel on the slight uphill, the spot where Huddle pulled away for the victory last year, she and Chepkirui were side by side. Chepkirui took the lead on the penultimate sharp left turn, 300 meters from the finish, and then Huddle claimed the lead on the final left turn onto Water Street. She had a stride on Chepkirui and was sprinting for home as the Kenyan woman pulled up on her left side. Huddle crossed the finish line ever-so-slightly in front to collect the $20,000 winner’s paycheck.

Chepkirui, runner-up by the record narrow margin, took home $10,000 for her efforts.

There were no such dramatics on the men’s side. Sambu, an affable 27-year-old and former University of Arizona star, ran a 4:28 ninth mile to open up three seconds of daylight on 30-year-old Chebet, who will train in Kenya for the next three weeks before returning to the States for the Boston Marathon. Sambu’s lead had grown to 12 seconds by the 20K mark and though he looked back over his right shoulder three times in the final mile, his pursuers Chebet and Chelanga were unable to close the gap.

“I didn’t want it to be like last year,” said Sambu, who was surprised by Korir at the finish line in 2015. “I was looking back all the time to try to make sure nobody’s close to me.”

No American woman has been close to Huddle on the roads in years. In a dominant 2015, she won five U.S. road racing titles to go along with her 10,000-meter national title on the track. And with her performance Sunday, the 31-year-old became the third-fastest American woman ever at 13.1 miles, behind Kara Goucher (whose 1:06:57 in 2007 was on a record-ineligible course) and Deena Kastor, who ran the American record of 1:07:34 in 2006.

Though encouraged by her time, Huddle was most pleased with her ability to compete with and triumph over world-class competition. “I came into the race not knowing if I could repeat because it was such a high-caliber field,” she said. “For it to come out similar [to last year] is something I’m really happy with. So I feel good about the year ahead.”

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