the title of New York marathon was left in the hands of Evans Chebet, who added his second major win this season (he had conquered Boston in April). Although the most impressive image of the traditional Big Apple test was not that of the Kenyan who crossed the finish line, but that of the Brazilian Daniele Do Nascimento collapsing almost 10 kilometers from the end, when he was leading the competition, overwhelmed by fatigue and cramps.

Do Nascimento, 24 years old and a rookie in this race, had run away alone at the start, with a diabolical step, which allowed him to get up to almost two minutes ahead of the group of favorites.

The Brazilian seemed at ease in the lead, but near km 32 he showed the first signs of exhaustion. Just when I was passing through part of the famous First Avenue (First Avenue) in Manhattan, he stopped in one of the chemical toilets located close to the path.

The image was curious, because the car that had the leader’s marker – and was driving right behind him – had to stop and wait for it to come out. The Paraguaçu Paulista (São Paulo) cross-country skier lost 18 seconds in the swim, but when he returned to the competition he was still ahead of Chebet by 1.12 meters.

However, that all changed a few minutes later. Do Nascimento – who had been leading the race for an hour and 40 minutes – suddenly stopped and tripped. He seemed to catch his breath and tried to take a few more steps, but his body no longer responded.

Dehydrated and with obvious signs of fatigue and dizziness, he fell to the ground. He was quickly assisted by race staff and police officers, while Chebet overtook him to the finish on his own.

Do Nascimento is the current duel for the South American record over this distance, which he set at the end of April in Seoul, where he finished third.

He had already suffered a similar episode in the test of this distance from Tokyo Olympics, in August last year. On that occasion he had positioned himself among the first candidates of the competition and seemed ready to fight for a medal, but after kilometer 25 he staggered and fell to the ground, hitting a fence. He got up and tried to continue but ended up collapsing again, exhausted and unable to complete the path.