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≡ BOSTON MARATHON ≡
With an excellent field and good weather predicted, there was high hope for a fastest-ever Boston Marathon in the 130th running, but someone needed to break the race open at a fast pace.
Running with sunny skies and with temperatures starting in the mid-40s, enter Ethiopia’s 2024 Berlin Marathon winner Milkesa Mengesha.
By 20 km (12.4 miles) , seven men had formed a lead pack with Ryan Ford (USA) in front, with Paris Olympian Lemi Berhanu (ETH) leading at the half in 1:01:43, with seven-second lead over defending champion John Korir (KEN), Mengesha and Americans Ford and Clayton Young, ninth in Paris.
Mengesha had the lead over Berhani at 25 km (15.5 miles), then took off. By 30 km (18.6 km), Mengesha had a 12-second gap on a chase group of five including Korir, Paris Olympic bronze winner (and 2021 Boston champ) Benson Kipruto (KEN), new American threat Zouhair Talbi and even World Champion Alphonce Simbu (TAN).
Mengesha was well in front, but the chasers kept contact and edged closer and by 20 miles (32.1 km), Korir had moved away from the chasers and had run down Mengesha.
And then he just kept going. The rest of the chase pack also passed Mengesha and the question was whether anyone could catch Korir.
Korir exploded to a 21-mile (33.8 km) lead of 22 seconds and the race was over. Could he crush the race record of 2:03:02 in the wind-blown 2011 race by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai?
By 22 miles, Korir, still just 29, was up by 26 seconds on Kipruto, with Simbu close. The lead was 33 seconds for Korir at 23 miles and 39 seconds by 24 miles.
Rolling to the finish, Korir was all alone and crossed in a race record 2:01:52! For course as hilly as Boston, this is special and is the seventh-fastest marathon ever run; because of the nature of the course – with its downhill sections – Boston is not included in the all-time lists of best marks.
It was an amazing run. He’s the 12th man to win back-to-back titles and will get $200,000 for winning and with a $50,000 bonus for the course record.
Kipruto and Simbu were together, racing to the line, but Simbu sprinted late to cross second in 2:02:47 with Kipruto in 2:02:50!
Among the Americans, Talbi, the ex-Moroccan, finished sixth in 2:03:45 and Charles Hicks was seventh in 2:04:35; Young was 11th (2:05:41) and Ford was 12th (2:05:46).
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The women’s race held together with a lead pack of 16 runners by the half in 1:11:02 with Americans Carrie Ellwood in the lead, ahead of Dakotah Popehn.
American Annie Frisbie, eighth in this race in 2025, took the lead at 25 km, but with the large pack continuing to run together. The front pack was nine by 30 km with American Jessica McClain – eighth at the 2025 Worlds marathon – but with defending champion Sharon Lokedi (KEN) right behind her.
Lokedi made a break at 21 miles and strung out the lead pack, with fellow Kenyans Loice Chemnung – fourth in Chicago last year – and Irine Cheptai – the 202r Hamburg winner and fourth in Boston in 2025 – following and everyone else trailing.
Lokedi kept pouring on the pressure, but Chemnung kept in contact. Lokedi stayed on the gas and pulled away after the 21 1/2-mike mark and was eight seconds in front by 23 miles.
She crossed in 2:18:51, the sixth straight win for a Kenyan woman. Chemnung was second in 2:19:35, then Mary Ngugi-Cooper (KEN) moved up for third in 2:20:07.
Lokedi’s second straight win follows two wins in a row for her friend Hellen Obiri (KEN); she’s the ninth to win back-to-back titles. In her eight career marathons, she won in New York in 2022 and now in 2025 and 2026 in Boston. She’s been on the podium in six of her eight career marathons.
McClain – seventh in Boston in 2025 – was the top American in fifth in 2:20:49, fastest ever for a U.S. women in Boston history, replacing Shalane Flanagan’s 2:22:02 from 2014. Frisbie was eighth in 2:22:00, ahead of Emily Sisson (2:22:39) and Carrie Ellwood (2:22:53).
Prize money for the top 10 was $150,000-75,000-40,000-25,000-18,000-13,500-10,500-8.500-7,000-5,500,plus the course-record bonuses.
Don’t get comfortable; the London Marathon comes Sunday with more fast performances coming.
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