Ireland’s Alistair Cragg ran a personal best time of one hour and 49 seconds in the New York City half-marathon today, with Britain’s Mo Farah taking the overall victory.
Farah won the European indoor title over 3,000m just a fortnight ago and put his track speed to good use to outsprint Ethiopia's Gebre Gebremariam in a tight finish.
Cragg will run the Boston Marathon on 18 April as he looks to build on this encouraging sixth place finish.
He said: ‘I felt good the whole way and it was only in the last mile or two that the leaders managed to get away from me, but it’s good feeling to get another Irish record and I‘m excited about where this can take me.’
Cragg’s time knocked eight seconds off the old mark of one hour and 57 seconds, set two years ago in Holland by Martin Fagan of Mullingar.
‘I’ve been packing in the miles in preparation for Boston and I think those miles were in my legs when it came to speeding up in the last few miles here,’ he said.
‘But I never felt the distance or did I feel tired at any stage. I finished very strong and really enjoyed it.
‘Running this event is a bit strange for me after all my races on the track but I’m now entering a new stage of my career and I’m excited about it and will now use the next few weeks wisely to prepare for Boston.’
Cragg will be looking to get the standard in Boston that will put him in line for selection for the World Championships next August in Korea and also for the Olympics in London next year.
Gebremariam, meanwhile, looked to have eked out a vital lead in the closing metres, but Farah surged past to win in an unofficial time of one hour and 22 seconds.
Farah's official time was rounded up to one hour 23 seconds, with Gebremariam two seconds behind and Farah's training partner Galen Rupp another five seconds adrift in third.
‘It was a great race,’ Farah said. ‘Me and Galen worked together but it came down to a sprint finish. The crowd made a big difference and it was really exciting.
‘We knew Gebremariam had a big finish so we worked hard but we still could not get rid of him. I felt all right with 400m to go and just went for it.’
In the women's race, Kenya's Caroline Rotich set a new course record with victory in 68:52, eclipsing the previous best of 69:25 set by Britain's Mara Yamauchi last year.
Fellow Kenyan Edna Kiplagat was eight seconds back in second, with American Kara Goucher third.
