New York, NY (My Sportsbook) - Brazil's Marilson Gomes dos Santos became the first South American to cross the finish line at the New York City Marathon as champion, breaking away from a star-studded field down the homestretch to finish in an unofficial time of two hours, nine minutes and 58 seconds.

Stephen Kiogora and defending champion Paul Tergat -- a pair of talented Kenyans -- finished second and third.

Gomes began to assert himself with about a quarter of the race left. Heading into the Bronx he started to lengthen his lead and by the time he was exiting Central Park he was all alone.

"It was a surprise," Gomes said. "To win a marathon, you have to have courage and today I had courage and I had courage to go win the race."

Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, running in the marathon to raise money for cancer research, finished the race in just under three hours. Armstrong, who had set a personal goal to cross the finish line in less than three hours, finished with a time of two hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds.

"The people around were all very supportive," Armstrong said. "Sometimes when you're running, just like I guess when you're racing guys, they are close and when you start to get tired it's a little frustrating when they are in your space. But everyone was very respectful, very supportive."

On the women's side, defending champion Jelena Prokopcuka dominated from start to finish, becoming the first woman in more than a decade to capture consecutive New York City Marathon titles.

Tegla Loroupe of Kenya won back-to-back marathons in 1994-95.

The Latvian Prokopcuka started quickly and maintained her pace, finishing in two hours, 25 minutes and five seconds on the overcast day in New York. Her lead grew to almost 90 seconds as the race meandered from the Bronx into Manhattan.

"My thought was to run together and keep in the pack," said Prokopcuka.

Ukrainian Tatiana Hladyr finished one minute behind Prokopcuka to take second, while Catherine Ndereba of Kenya finished third. Boston Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo came in fourth, one tick behind Ndereba.

Prokopcuka's victory ruined the title hopes of Deena Kastor, the world's top- ranked marathon runner, who was favored to become the first American woman to win the race since 1997.