Kerr defends New Balance 5th Avenue Mile title, shatters 1981 event record
Schweizer ties women’s event record with victory; overall, 17 men went sub-4 and 15 women 4:30 plus 8,800 finishers on the iconic thoroughfare
NEW YORK – On a beautiful late summer September Sunday, at the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile, Olympic medalist and World champion Josh Kerr and two-time U.S. Olympian Karissa Schweizer won the professional races, breaking and tying the event records, respectively.
A month removed from winning an Olympic 1500m silver medal in Paris, the 26-year-old Scotsman impressively captured his second consecutive title on famed 5th Avenue in a time of 3:44.3, smashing the event record of 3:47.52 set by Sydney Maree in the race’s first year in 1981. American Josh Hoey finished as runner-up in 3:48.9, followed by Kenya’s Amon Kemboi in 3:49.3, both of which fall within the top-10 fastest times in event history.
In her FAM debut, Schweizer, 28, easily secured the women’s race in 4:14.8, tying Laura Muir’s event record from 2022. Kenyans rounded out the podium, with Dorcas Ewoi placing second in 4:17.3 (also her race debut) and Susan Ejore taking third (4:18.3).
At the 43rd edition, on the point-to-point course with a slight tailwind, 17 men went sub-4 minutes and 15 women ran sub-4:30 benchmark.
Each race champion took home $5000 for their wins; overall, the event paid out $34,000.
More than 8,000 adult runners and 1,000 youth of all ages and abilities participated in the world’s largest, most iconic road Mile race.
This year’s New Balance 5th Avenue Mile featured 30 different heats, including Back-to-School Mile heats for Rising New York Road Runners, a George Sheehan Memorial Mile for seniors, an NYPD and FDNY Mile, a Media Mile for journalists won by The New York Times, and NYRR Road Mile Championship heats. New this year, runners who are part of the NYRR Unlock 26.2 x New Balance training program for the TCS New York City Marathon had their own heat as well.
For complete race results, go to: https://results.nyrr.org/event/24FAM/finishers
CREDIT: New York Road Runners
