Masters Men at NYC 2026: Chelanga Dominates a Global Field

• Sam Chelanga, 41, wins in 2:17:10 (5:14/mi) — more than eight minutes clear of second place in a Masters Men field of 14,572.
• Christian Castro, 40, runs the strongest second half of any podium finisher, posting the 40th-fastest men's split from 25K to 16M and climbing from 81st to 47th among the men en route to 2:25:29.
• Aki Nummela, 41, closes hardest of the top three, recording the 27th-fastest men's split from 26M to the finish to secure 3rd in 2:27:17 — edging John Kinsella (4th, 2:27:31) and Jan Stelzner (5th, 2:27:38) in a tight three-way battle for the final podium spot.
• Thierry Guibault, 52, and Sam Ives, 48, are the oldest men in the top ten, finishing 9th (2:31:36) and 10th (2:32:03) respectively in a top ten otherwise dominated by 40–43-year-olds.

Sam Chelanga made the Masters Men race his own from the moment the field hit Central Park. Running at 5:14 per mile through the five boroughs, the 41-year-old from Fayetteville, NC built a lead that was never seriously threatened. He moved steadily through the men's field — tracking from 32nd at the first checkpoint to 28th by mile 25 — and then unleashed the 26th-fastest men's split on the 40K-to-25-mile stretch to put the result beyond doubt. His margin of victory: 8:19 over second place. In a field of 14,572, that's a statement.

Behind him, Christian Castro of Ciudad de Mexico ran a tactically intelligent race. He started conservatively — 81st among the men — and systematically worked his way forward, climbing to 47th by the finish with a 5:33/mi average and a particularly sharp 25K-to-16M split. The result: 2:25:29 and a clear second place. Aki Nummela, meanwhile, saved his best for last. The Finn from Vantaa was 64th among the men at the halfway point and barely moved through the middle miles — but his 27th-fastest men's split from mile 26 to the finish was the strongest closing kick on the podium, and it proved just enough. He crossed in 2:27:17, holding off Kinsella (2:27:31) and Stelzner (2:27:38) in a 21-second scramble for third through fifth.

The depth of this field is worth pausing on. Fourteen and a half thousand Masters Men finished this race through all five New York City boroughs on a crisp November morning, and the competition in the top 20 was genuinely international — finishers from Mexico, Finland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Hong Kong, France, Russia, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK. Guibault (52) and Ives (48) deserve particular credit for cracking the top ten against a field skewed heavily toward 40-year-olds. The Masters Men's race at NYC 2026 had a clear winner — and a very long, very fast tail behind him.