Thousands of runners compete in the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half
NEW YORK, New York (WABC) -- Thousands of participants were off and running Sunday in the 2019 United Airlines NYC Half.
The 14th running of the race took more than 25,000 runners on a 13.1-mile park-to-park tour from Brooklyn to Manhattan.
The race starts in Prospect Park and passes through iconic New York City landmarks, including Grand Army Plaza, the United Nations, Grand Central Terminal and Times Square.
Runners end the race near the iconic TCS New York City Marathon finish line in Central Park.
The men's winner was Ethiopia's Belay Tilahun, while Kenya's Joyciline Jepkosgei won in the women's division.
The 24-year-old Tilahun completed the course in 1:02:10, overtaking Eritrea's Daniel Mesfun, who led for the majority of the race but finished six seconds behind.
Jepkosgei, the world record-holder in the half marathon, won her first-ever solo race in the United States in 1:10:07. Mary Ngugi, also of Kenya, finished one minute later in second.
Daniel Romanchuk and Tatyana McFadden, both of the United States, won the wheelchair divisions.
The event featured a star-studded professional athlete field with nine Olympians and nine Paralympians, including all four defending champions in Ben True (USA), Buze Diriba (ETH), Ernst van Dyk (RSA), and Manuela Schr (SUI), along with 2018 Boston Marathon champion Des Linden (USA) and Olympic silver medalist Paul Chelimo (USA) who made his much-anticipated debut at the half-marathon distance.
In addition to the professional athletes and 25,000 citizen runners, nearly 1,000 youth runners participated in 1200-meter heats through Times Square in the Rising New York Road Runners race at the United Airlines NYC Half.
NYRR is celebrating 20 years of providing free youth running programs, serving nearly 250,000 youth across the country annually through Rising New York Road Runners.
Watch the United Airlines NYC Half Highlight Show:
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