Deresa Geleta is the only Ethiopian left in the professional men’s field for the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1. New York Road Runners (NYRR), which organizes the race, lists his personal best of 2:02:38 as the second fastest in the field.
The men’s race starts at 9:05 a.m. in New York, which is 5:05 p.m. in Addis Ababa. This year the race marks 50 years since its course first went through all five boroughs, or districts, of New York City.
Two Ethiopians Withdraw
Ethiopia had three runners in the field when NYRR named it in August. The other two were Huseydin Mohamed Esa, the 2026 Cape Town Marathon champion, and Gotytom Gebreslase, a two time medalist at the World Athletics Championships. Running News Daily, published by MyBestRuns, reported that both have withdrawn.
Neither name appears in the list of leading runners that World Athletics published on Thursday. With Gebreslase out, no Ethiopian woman is in the professional women’s race. The Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands has also withdrawn after an illness, World Athletics said. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, the defending champion, has the fastest best time among the women at 2:15:53.
Deresa’s First Race in New York
Deresa has never run in New York. NYRR says he finished second at the 2025 Tokyo Marathon. In April this year, he finished sixth at the London Marathon in 2:03:23.
The American running website LetsRun says he set his best time at the 2024 Valencia Marathon in Spain. By its count, the 30 year old has finished 20 marathons and won three of them: Lagos in 2022, Beijing in 2023 and Seville in 2024. He has not yet won one of the World Marathon Majors, the series of the biggest city marathons.
LetsRun spoke with him this week. Before the recording started, Deresa told the website that he is fitter now than he was in the spring, when he ran in London.
The fastest man in the field is Benson Kipruto of Kenya, with 2:02:16. Kipruto won last year’s race by three hundredths of a second, the closest finish the event has seen, World Athletics said. Andreas Almgren of Sweden, who won the world half marathon title in September, will run his first marathon.
Ethiopia’s Record in New York
Ethiopian men have won the race four times. Tesfaye Jifar was the first, in 2001, when he set a course record of 2:07:43, World Athletics reported at the time. Gebregziabher Gebremariam won in 2010, and Lelisa Desisa won in 2018.
Tamirat Tola won in 2023 in 2:04:58, which is still the men’s course record, according to Track and Field News statistics. Among the women, Derartu Tulu became the first Ethiopian to win the race in 2009, The New York Times reported.
Ethiopian runners have already won several big races this autumn. Hawi Feysa defended her title at the Chicago Marathon in October. On October 25, Jirata Dinki and Zeineba Yimer won the Frankfurt Marathon, and Abay Alemu Lesa and Zenebu Fikadu won the Dublin Marathon.
In the United States, ESPN2 will show the race live from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday, and the ESPN App will stream it.
Video: Deresa Geleta speaks with LetsRun before the New York City Marathon, posted on the LetsRun YouTube channel on October 29, 2026.
