A record-smashing 2026 United Airlines NYC Half

Hellen Obiri set a new women’s record and South African Adriaan Wildschutt surprised on the men’s side as thousands ran in the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half on Sunday.

Obiri finished the pro women’s race in a time of 1:06:33 to add the NYC Half to her victory list and smashing the course record by 30 seconds. She also set a course record winning the New York City Marathon in 2025. Two years ago, she became the first woman in 34 years to win both the Boston and New York City Marathons in the same calendar year.

Hellen Obiri set a course record winning the women’s NYC Half Marathon

Wildschutt, a South African long-distance runner, broke away to win the men’s professional race, finishing at 59:30 in his first time running in New York City.

Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s pro wheelchair marathon in a time of 48:10. The American has also won the New York City Marathon in 2018, 2019 and 2024.

England’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper took the women’s pro wheelchair race finishing at 54:27. She began wheelchair racing in 2013, inspired by former TCS New York City Marathon champion David Weir winning four gold medals at the London 2012 Paralympics.

Organized by the New York Road Runners, the United Airlines NYC Half is the world’s premier half-marathon and the largest in the U.S. Sunday’s runners featured all four defending champions, 30 Olympians and Paralympians, 19 national record holders and 11 global medalists.

The race takes runners on a 13.1-mile park-to-park tour of New York City, starting in Prospect Park in Brooklyn and ending in Central Park. For the second year in a row, athletes will traverse across the Brooklyn Bridge — the only race in history to do so — before passing Grand Central Terminal and running through Times Square, a location closed to traffic only twice a year.

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In 2025, a record-breaking 28,709 finishers participated in the United Airlines NYC Half. In addition to the nearly 29,000 half marathoners, more than 1,500 kids between the ages of 2-18 participated in free races and dashes at the Times Square Kids Run.

You can learn more about the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half on the New York Road Runners website.

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ABC 7 New York is a proud sponsor of the United Airlines NYC Half. Streaming coverage of the event was provided on abc7NY.com, our mobile and connected TV apps, and social media platforms.