NEW YORK — Mary Keitany of Kenya – a two-time Beach to Beacon winner – and Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia won the New York City Marathon on Sunday, with Keitany dominating the strong women’s field for her fourth victory in the event and Desisa surging ahead of two other runners near the finish line.

Desisa, 28, held off countryman Shura Kitata by 1.99 seconds for his first win in New York, joining victories at the Boston Marathon in 2013 and 2015. He finished second in New York in 2014 and third in 2015 and 2017.

Desisa finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 59 seconds, the second- fastest time for the course. Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya set the record of 2:05:05 in 2011. Last year’s winner, Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya, finished third Sunday.

“This is my dream,” Desisa said. “To be a champion.”

Keitany, 36, became the second woman to win the marathon four times. She ran the race in 2:22:48, the second-fastest time for the course. Margaret Okayo of Kenya set the record of 2:22:31 in 2003.

Keitany won in 2014, 2015 and 2016 before coming in second last year to an American, Shalane Flanagan. She joined Grete Waitz, a Norwegian who won the marathon nine times between 1978-1988, as the only women to win the marathon four times.

“I can say the course record was not in my mind,” Keitany said. “For me, winning was very important.”

Keitany won the Beach to Beacon in 2016 and ’17, setting the coursr record of 30:41 in her second victory.

She and Ethiopians Rahma Tusa and Gudeta turned their race to a three-woman field at the 15-mile mark. Keitany pulled away from Tusa and Gudeta at 19 miles, leading Tusa by 26.58 seconds and Gudeta by 43.98 seconds. She extended her lead over Tusa to 1:27.83 at 21 miles.

From that point, the question was not whether Keitany would win. but by how much.

She beat Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya by 3 minutes, 13 seconds.

Flanagan finished third.

“You have to find motivation, things to focus on,” Flanagan said. “When I finally got to third place, I got another level of excitement because I was fighting.”

The United States had four women finish in the top 10: Molly Huddle was fourth, Desiree Linden was sixth and Allie Kieffer was seventh.

Four American men also finished in the top 10: Jared Ward was sixth, Scott Fauble was seventh, Shadrack Biwott was ninth and Chris Derrick was 10th.