Paula Radcliffe after winning the New York Marathon, 02 Nov 2008

Defending champion Paula Radcliffe of Britain has captured her third title at the New York Marathon, while Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race.

The 34-year-old Radcliffe completed the 42-kilometer race in 2:23:56 on Sunday to become only the second woman to win the event for a third time.

Ludmila Petrova of Russia finished second, 1:47 back. Kara Goucher of the United States was third (2:25:53) in her marathon debut, becoming the first American to make the podium in 14 years.

Meanwhile, Marilson Gomes dos Santos won the men's race for the second time. He passed Morocco's Abderrahim Goumri with less than two kilometers to go and crossed the finish line in 2:08:43. Goumri finished 24 seconds later in second place, while Daniel Rono of Kenya was third (2:11:22).

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.