Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia set a blistering pace and held on to win the Boston Marathon on Monday, running alone for most of the course to finish in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 17 seconds, the 10th fastest time in its 128-year history. of the career.
Hellen Obiri defended her title in the women's race, overtaking fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi down Boylston Street to win by eight seconds. Obiri is the first woman to win the Boston Marathon consecutively since 2005.
Lemma came to Boston with the fastest time in the field, becoming the fourth person to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year. And the London 2021 champion showed it on the field, separating himself from the pack in Ashland and opening a lead of more than half a mile.
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Lemma ran the first half in 60:19, 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's record pace in 2011, when he finished in 2:03:02, the fastest marathon in history up to that point. His Ethiopian compatriot Mohamed Esa closed the gap in the final kilometers and finished second by 41 seconds; Two-time defending champion Evans Chebet was third.
Lemma dropped to the pavement and rolled onto his back, smiling, after crossing the finish line.
“I decided I wanted to start fast early,” said Lemma, whose victory in London in 2021 was his only other major marathon victory. “I kept the pace and won.”
On a day when sunshine and temperatures reaching the mid-60s had runners searching for water, to drink and pour it over their heads, Obiri ran with an unusually large group of 15 leaders through Brookline before break away. Lokedi was second and two-time Boston winner Edna Kiplagat was third.
Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia breaks the tape to win the Boston Marathon, Monday, April 15, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Switzerland's Marcel Hug recovered after hitting a barrier when he turned too fast and still took a record in the men's wheelchair race. It was his seventh victory in Boston and his 14th consecutive victory in a major marathon.
Hug already had a four-minute lead at about 18 miles when he reached the historic firehouse curve in Newton, where the course heads onto Commonwealth Avenue on its way to Heartbreak Hill. He collapsed over the fence and spun sideways on his left wheel, but quickly recovered.
“It was my fault,” Hug said. “There was too much weight, too much pressure from above on the steering, so I couldn't turn.”
Hug finished in 1:15:33, winning by 5:04 and breaking his previous course record by 1:33. Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper, 22, won the women's wheelchair race in 1:35:11, her first major marathon victory; She is the third-youngest woman to win the Boston Wheelchair Race.
The sleepy New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversary Monday as the starting line of the Boston Marathon, sending off 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 more runners along the way. Near the finish line on Boylston Street, 26.2 miles away, officials observed the anniversary of the 2013 bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds more.
Sunny skies and minimal wind greeted the runners, with temperatures climbing into the 60s by late morning. As the course passed through Natick, the fourth of eight cities and towns on the route, athletes splashed themselves with water to cool off.
“We couldn't ask for a better day,” former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, the great quarterback, said before hopping into an electric car that would take him across the field. “The city of Boston always comes out to support, no matter the event. The weather is perfect, the energy is popping.”
The festivities began around 6 a.m., when race director Dave McGillivray dismissed about 30 members of the Massachusetts National Guard. Lt. Col. Paula Reichert Karsten, one of the protesters, said she wanted to be part of a “quintessential Massachusetts event.”
The starting line was painted to read “100 Years in Hopkinton,” commemorating the 1924 move from Ashland to Hopkinton to conform to the official Olympic marathon distance. The announcer welcomed the crowd gathered in the “quiet little town of Hopkinton, 364 days a year.”
“In Hopkinton, it's probably the best thing in town,” said Maggie Agosto, a 16-year-old resident who went to the starting line with a friend to watch the race.
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The annual Patriots Day race, the state holiday commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War, also coincided with One Boston Day, when the city remembers the victims of the 2013 marathon bombings. At the finish line On Boylston Street, bagpipes accompanied Governor Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and members of the victims' families as they laid a pair of wreaths at the sites of the explosions.
