Geoffrey Mutai wins New York marathon in record time

Geoffrey Mutai crosses the line in a course record for the New York marathon.

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya has won the New York City Marathon in a course record time.

Mutai finished in an unofficial time of two hours, five minutes, six seconds, lopping more than two minutes off the old time.

The 30-year-old has established himself as the favourite at next summer's Olympics with this second landmark performance of the year.

In April, Mutai ran the fastest marathon in history: 2:03:02 in Boston.

That did not count as a world record because the course is considered too straight and too downhill.

The second and third placed runners were also inside the previous New York record of 2:07:43 set by Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia a decade earlier.

London Marathon winner, fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai (no relation), was one minute, 22 seconds behind. Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia was third.

The women's race was won by Ethiopian Firehiwot Dado, in a time of two hours, 23 minutes and 15 seconds, to edge her compatriot Buzunesh Deba by four seconds.

Dado, 27, making her New York debut, ran a personal best for the distance.

Third place was reigning London Marathon champion, Mary Keitany of Kenya, who led from the start until she was overtaken by the two Ethiopians with just a mile to run. She finished 23 seconds behind.

Geoffrey Mutai's time was still 88 seconds off the men's marathon world record of 2:03:38, set by Kenya's Patrick Makau at the Berlin Marathon just 43 days ago.