Falmouth Road Race Winners, Runners And ... An Astronaut?

FALMOUTH, MA — This year's Falmouth Road Race had many headlines, including past and present Olympians and even an astronaut's sendoff.

The annual race brought out more than 11,000 runners from across the world and, despite the sometimes rainy conditions, featured high-level performances from top-tier athletes.

Full results can be found here.

Here's what to know from Sunday's events:

Wheelchair Races

In the women’s wheelchair race, Hoda Elshorbagy of Egypt jumped to the front early and never gave up the lead. Elshorbagy, who trains in Illinois, eventually held onto a 50-second lead finishing in 29:20.

She is the first Egyptian athlete to win any division of the Falmouth Road Race.

Yen Hoang, of the United States, finished second and Hannah Babalola, of Nigeria, placed third.

Former Falmouth champions Jenya Senbeta and Krige Schabort took the lead in the opening miles of the men’s race as last year’s runner-up Miguel Jimenez-Vergara started nearly 30 seconds back.

Vegara eventually caught up by mile five and used the downhill finish to win his first Falmouth title. He is the first Californian to win the division since Keith Davis in 1999.

“I fell behind immediately. At the start of the race, I was almost a half mile behind,” said Jimenez-Vergara, who recently competed in the U.S. Paralympic Trials in Florida. “I think as you hear people cheering, it adds adrenaline and a sense of urgency. The crowds had so much positivity just moving me along.”

Schabort and Senbeta, both of the United States, held on for second and third, respectively.

Winners of the wheelchair division each earned $3,000 in prize money.

Open Division Races

The women's open division had a unique start as Needham, Mass., native Sunita Williams, an astronaut, gave the starting command from a treadmill at the International Space Station.

A pack of nine women – four Americans, three Kenyans and two Ethiopians – stuck together through the opening miles, controlling the pace and taking turns blocking the headwind. Nearly the entire pack was still in the hunt until after the 10K mark when the Ethiopian duo, Fentaye Belayneh and Melknat Wudu, broke away.

That opened a six-second gap on American Emma Bates over the final half mile with Belayneh finishing in 36:10, one second ahead of Wudu.

“The competition was good,” said Belayneh, who dropped out of the 2022 edition of the Falmouth Road Race. “It’s great. I am glad I won.”

Bates finished third in 36:17, the sixth fastest time ever by an American woman at the Falmouth Road Race.

“It’s always so welcoming here,” said Bates, who will run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon this fall. “People were shouting ‘Emma’ the entire way and I was running with Emma Grace Hurley so both of us were just soaking up the energy from the crowd.”

The men’s open division played out much differently. Just seven minutes after receiving the start command from two-time Falmouth champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Frank Shorter, John Korir took a commanding and permanent lead.

Korir, last year’s runner-up, had an eight-second gap by the two-mile mark. A mile later that gap had doubled and he was already high-fiving the crowd, race officials said.

The Kenyan then dropped back-to-back 4:21 miles to stretch his lead to 30 seconds and it was nearly 50 seconds when he appeared at the top of the hill in Falmouth Heights. His time of 31:15 is the third fastest in race history.

“I was confident. I knew I was going to win because I am in very good shape,” said Korir who also won last month’s Boilermaker 15K in Utica, NY. “I was feeling good, so I decided to go and see how it went.”

Fellow Kenyan Athanas Kioko finished second in 32:06, barely outkicking Morocco’s Mohamed El Aaraby who finished third.

Morgan Beadlescomb, who finished fifth in the mile at Friday’s Falmouth Track Festival, was a late entry into today’s race. In what was the longest competitive race of his career, Beadlescomb finished fifth in 32:21, taking top American honors.

“I didn’t have any expectations so I just wanted to go in and be tough,” said Beadlescomb, who was a late entry into the race. “It turned out that we learned a lot about what our training is gearing toward so we will take that into next year.”

Today’s open winners will each take home $10,000 for their efforts.

Where The Runners Were From

The Falmouth Road Race brings runners from across the world annually. In 2024, race officials said runners and walkers came from 45 states and 12 countries including Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, England, Ireland, Kenya, Brazil, Japan, and India.

Of the 11,400 entrants, more than 3,000 live in Falmouth.