Kenyan Hellen Obiri repeated as Boston Marathon women’s champion, while Ethiopian Sisay Lemma won the men’s race at the world’s oldest annual marathon.
Obiri, a 34-year-old mom, pulled away from countrywoman Sharon Lokedi in the last mile, clocking 2 hours, 22 minutes, 37 seconds to become the first woman to repeat as champion since another Kenyan, Catherine Ndereba, in 2004 and 2005.
She prevailed by eight seconds over Lokedi, the 2022 New York City Marathon winner. Edna Kiplagat, a 44-year-old Kenyan and two-time Boston winner, was third.
Obiri, who won the last two Olympic 5000m silver medals, moved up to the marathon in 2022 and has now won three major titles -- Boston twice, plus New York City last November. She is one of the favorites for the Paris Olympic marathon on the last day of the Games on Aug. 11, should she be named to the three-woman Kenyan team.
BOSTON MARATHON: Results
“The Boston Marathon has opened my way to win the New York Marathon, and I’m sure it has opened my way to win the Olympics, so next year coming here to Boston as an Olympic champion,” Obiri said.
Lemma won the men’s race in 2:06:17, distancing countryman Mohamed Esa by 41 seconds. Kenyan Evans Chebet finished third in his bid for a record-tying third consecutive Boston title.
Lemma, 33, went on a solo break between 5K and 10K and was on course record pace (sub-2:03:02) during the first half. He led by as much as 2:49 at 20 miles.
“My plan was to break the course record, but it’s so hilly, up and down and that took a lot and made me tired a little bit,” he said through a translator on ESPN2.
Lemma is the world’s fourth-fastest marathoner in history with a personal best of 2:01:48 from winning last December’s Valencia Marathon in Spain.
He is expected to be named to Ethiopia’s three-man Olympic team and bid to dethrone Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who is expected to bid to become the first person to win three marathon gold medals.
C.J. Albertson was the lone American male or female runner to place in the top 10 in Boston, taking seventh in the men’s race in a personal best 2:09:53, 10 weeks after placing fifth at the Olympic Trials and missing a possible Olympic spot by 10 seconds.
Most of the top Americans did not race Boston after racing trials.
In the wheelchair races, Swiss Marcel Hug smashed his course record by 93 seconds, clocking 1:15:33 to distance American Daniel Romanchuk by 5:04. Hug earned a seventh career title in Boston.
In the women’s wheelchair race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper became the first British wheelchair racer to prevail in Boston. Rainbow-Cooper, who entered with a personal best of 1:47:27 and no major marathon titles, clocked 1:35:11.
The next major marathon is the London Marathon next Sunday.
