Abel Kipchumba, Sharon Lokedi, Geert Schipper, and Manuela Schär Capture Titles as 2025 United Airlines NYC Half Becomes Largest in Event and New York Road Runners Half Marathon History
New York, March 16, 2025 – Records were broken at Sunday’s 2025 United Airlines NYC Half—the largest in event and New York Road Runners half marathon history with more than 28,600 finishers—as Abel Kipchumba and Sharon Lokedi captured the men’s and women’s open division titles in event record times. In the wheelchair division,Geert Schipper successfully defended his title and Manuela Schär returned to the top of the podium for the first time since 2022. Produced by nonprofit New York Road Runners (NYRR), the United Airlines NYC Half has been the world’s premier half marathon for nearly two decades and took athletes on a tour of Brooklyn and Manhattan, running over the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time in NYRR history. With more than 28,600 finishers, the 2025 United Airlines NYC Half rewrote history, officially becoming the nonprofit’s largest half marathon in its 67-year history.
Kipchumba, who won last year’s United Airlines NYC Half during his first-ever trip to New York City, stormed to victory again in an event record time of 59:09, running away from U.S. Olympians Conner Mantz and Hillary Bor in the last three miles. Mantz, who became the American half marathon record holder in January, improved his fourth-place finish in 2022 to place second in 59:15—the fastest-ever United Airlines NYC Half performance by an American—and was followed by compatriot Bor in 59:55, who finished just off the podium in fourth last year.
“When I was coming for this second half marathon [in] New York, I was training for a marathon. I was well prepared … because you must prepare your psychology … Today the field was so strong, that told me to push more, and then I ran that 59:09,” Kipchumbasaid on NYRR Set the Pace Presented by Peloton.
Lokedi, the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon champion, surged in the final miles to take a commanding victory in an event record 1:07:04. She was joined on the podium by U.S. Olympian Fiona O’Keeffe—her first race since the 2024 Paris Olympic Marathon and the second fastest time by an American woman in race history—and British Olympian Calli Hauger-Thackery, who took bronze in the women’s half marathon at the 2024 European Athletics Championships. O’Keeffe and Hauger-Thackery ran 1:07:46 and 1:07:49, respectively.
"I'm so glad to have come with a win and, in a very magical race in a very magical place and…the course was awesome,” Lokedisaid on NYRR Set the Pace Presented by Peloton after her victory. “Honestly, I feel like every time I’m out here…It just brings something out of me.”
The Netherlands’ Geert Schipper successfully defended his men’s wheelchair division title in 49:53, more than two and a half minutes faster than runner-up American Evan Correll who ran 52:31 and Phillip Croft who made his first NYRR podium in 52:56.
"The reason I race is not [e]specially for winning. Winning, of course, gives a way better feeling, than being second, third or fourth,” Schippersaid on NYRR Set the Pace Presented by Peloton