Talbi becomes the first American winner of the Great North Run; Kosgei wins in 66:15
On the 45th edition, the biggest yet with 63,000 runners, Talbi closed a 4:18 last mile to beat defending champion Alex Mutiso by 14 seconds in 59:47.
Photograph: Brigid Kosgei at the 2024 London Marathon, by Paul Hudson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsZouhair Talbi had never run the Great North Run before Sunday. He left it as the first American to win it. Shoulder to shoulder with last year's winner Alex Mutiso for most of the 13.1 miles from Newcastle to South Shields, he ran 4:38 between miles 11 and 12, then a 4:18 closing mile, and reached the tape in 59:47, the only man under an hour. Mutiso was second in 60:01 and Yohei Ikeda of Japan third in 60:40. It was warm and sunny.
Talbi, 31, ran for Morocco at the Paris Olympics and became a US citizen in 2024. In April he was fifth in Boston in 2:03:15, the fastest marathon by an American on that course, and he races New York on 1 November. Two other Americans bound for New York were close behind: Casey Clinger fourth in 61:36 and Clayton Young seventh in 62:04. Marc Scott was the first Briton, eighth in 62:10.
Brigid Kosgei won the women's race by more than two minutes in 66:15, well outside the 64:28 course record she set here in 2019, but convincing enough on the way to Chicago. Sheila Chepkirui, the defending champion, was second in 68:19 and Melknat Wudu third in 69:37. Amy-Eloise Neale was the first British woman, fifth in 70:27. David Weir won the men's wheelchair race in 43:06, his tenth win on this course.
The organisers put 63,000 runners on the road, the most in the race's 45 years. Nobody caught the man who had never seen the course.
Sources: Athletics Weekly; Athletics Illustrated; Great Run.
