Great Britain's Megan Keith made an excellent half marathon debut in the United Airlines NYC Half on Sunday (15) afternoon.
In her first race since eclipsing the European 10km record with 30:07 in Castellon last month, Keith finished third in 67:13 in a race won by Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in a course record of 66:33.
Keith was embroiled in a tete-a-tete with Sharon Lokedi in the closing miles but the Boston Marathon winner pulled away in the last mile for the runner-up spot in 67:10 with Keith three seconds in arrears.
"I've never raced further than than 10k and I was quite hesitant and every mile that went by, I was feeling all right and I was closing the gaps on the ladies ahed but I only started to feel confident after 9.5 miles so at that point I was excited to push on but I thought I could hit a wall at any minute.
"I made good decisions but I probably could have been slightly more fearless in the last 5K. You're never home and dry but in the last 5K, if you're feeling good that's the time to push on but I also knew that I was in uncharted territory and I had to be really carefully," said Keith.
Behind Keith, European 10,000m silver medallist Diane Van Es from the Netherlands finished fourth in 68:21 while Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen returned to racing after a long spell on the sidelines by finishing 11th in 70:04.
In the men’s race which was won by South Africa’s Adriaan Wildschutt in 59:30, Peter Lynch created history in fifth-place by becoming the first Irishman to break the one hour-barrier for the half marathon in 59:52. However, the point-to-point course is not record eligible so his time won’t count as a national record.
Great Britain’s Patrick Dever showed promising form ahead of next month’s London Marathon, also breaking the one hour-barrier in sixth in 59:56.