Debutant Almgren made history - won the New York Marathon

Expectations were high before Andreas Almgren's marathon debut in the New York Marathon.

After Almgren won EC gold in the 10,000 meters this summer, and followed it up by winning WC gold in the half-marathon distance in Copenhagen in September, he was not a debutante in the crowd. In the preview, he was mentioned as one of the favorites for victory, and the 31-year-old was well prepared for what lay ahead.

- I already have the race in my head, visualises it. Hopefully I can fight for the victory in Central Park, he said when DN met him at the high-altitude camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he traveled after winning World Cup gold in Copenhagen.

A week ago, he arrived in New York ready to run the 42,195-meter course.

It ended with success.

The sun shone over an almost windless New York as the men's elite group was let off shortly after nine on Sunday morning local time.

The start was on Staten Island, which the runners left early by running across the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn, to the tune of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York."

As expected, it was a large group - with Andreas Almgren as one of the runners - that hung together at the beginning.

So it continued to appear. The Swedish debutant ran with control where he was always among the top runners in the pack.

After about half the distance, USA's Zouhair Talbi tried a pull, which gave him a few meters lead. However, he was soon caught.

By the time the group arrived in Manhattan, it had shrunk to 18 runners, but the 31-year-old Swede was still far ahead.

With five kilometers to go, things started to happen in the bunch that split up, and with three kilometers to go, the four runners who had pulled away. They quickly shrunk to three.

One of the three was Andreas Almgren. The other two were Benson Kipruto and Italy's Yemaneberhan Crippa

However, Kipruto could not keep up, and it was clear that the battle for victory would be between the Swede Almgren and the Italian Crippa.

When Almgren increased the pace, Crippa could not respond and in solitary majesty Andreas Almgren ran across the finish line as the winner with a time of 2.06.01.