NEW YORK (AP) – Two runners have died after completing the New York City Marathon, one shortly after crossing the finish line and the other several hours later.

Brazilian runner Carlos Jose Gomes, 58, had just passed the finish line Sunday afternoon in a time of 4 hours and 12 minutes when he complained about feeling ill, police said. The Sao Paulo resident was taken by ambulance to a Manhattan hospital, where he died.

The cause of Gomes’ death was a heart attack, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said Monday.

The other runner who died after the 26.2-mile race was a man whose identity and cause of death weren’t immediately disclosed, said Richard Finn, a spokesman for the New York Road Runners Club, organizer of the marathon. The medical examiner’s office said it hadn’t received a report of the second death.

At least two other runners became ill during the race and had to be hospitalized. More than 38,000 runners took part.

The race director for the marathon said what was “otherwise an absolutely fabulous day was marred” by the deaths.

“There’s nothing harder for us than when one of our participants doesn’t make it home at the end of the day,” New York Road Runners Club president Mary Wittenberg said. “We express our deepest condolences to the athletes’ families.”

The last fatality at the race was in 1994, when one person died, she said.

AP-ES-11-03-08 2126EST