First American in 31 Years Wins Los Angeles Marathon

An American won the Los Angeles Marathon for the first time in 31 years on Sunday.

According to CNN, Matt Richtman won event in its 40th year since it began, setting a personal record of 2 hours, 7 minutes, and 56 seconds over second place winner Athanas Kioko of Kenya, who came in just shy of three minutes after Richtman.

The marathon was Richtman’s second after he debuted at the Twin Cities Marathon in fourth place with a time of 2:10.47. The Elburn, Illinois native was a member of the Montana State cross country team where he earned All-American honors in 2022-23.

“I didn’t really have a super big plan coming into this. It’s always so tough, the marathon, just because so much can happen,” Richtman said. “I just told myself to stay in that pack until about the halfway mark and then if I felt good, I could make a move. Ended up going a little bit to the lead and no one really came with me.”

Richtman beat the time set by the last American winner, Paul Pilkington, who won the event in 1994 with a time of 2 hours, 30 minutes, and 16 seconds.

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