Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma set a blistering pace and won the men’s section of the 128e Boston Marathon, Monday.
Lemma ran alone for the majority of the race and crossed the finish line in a time of 2:06.17. It was the 10e fastest time in marathon history.
Champion in London in 2021, Lemma arrived in Boston with the best time of the entire peloton, becoming only the fourth person in history to lower the time of 2:02.00 when he triumphed in Valencia, the year last.
“I decided I wanted to go fast from the start,” explained Lemma, who had only one other career victory in a major marathon, in London. I kept the pace and won. »
Evans Chebet, the two-time defending champion, was trying to become the first three-time winner since 2008. He finished third.
On the women’s side, Hellen Obiri defended her title, edging fellow Kenyan Sharon Lokedi by eight seconds. Obiri is the first woman to win the Boston Marathon two years in a row since Catherine Ndereba in 2005.
Obiri finished the marathon with a time of 2:22.37. Two-time champion Edna Kiplagat completed the Kenyan sweep.
“Defending a title is not easy. Since Boston started, we’ve only been talking about six women. I wondered if I could be one of them. To do this, I had to work even harder. I’m so happy because I’m now a part of it. I am now in the history books of Boston,” expressed Obiri.
Earlier in the day, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, now a seven-time champion, dominated the field of wheelchair athletes, even though he fell against a safety barrier. He finished the race in 1:15.33 to earn a 14e major marathon in a row and a 24e in career.
On the women’s side, Briton Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the wheelchair event in 1:35.11, securing her first victory in a major marathon.
The New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversarye anniversary as the starting line for the Boston Marathon, sending a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners on their way.
Near the finish on Boylston Street, officials observed a moment of silence over the 2013 bombing that left three people dead and hundreds injured.
The weather forecast showed minimal wind, sunny skies and temperatures reaching 15 degrees Celsius along the 42.2 kilometer route.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better day,” said former New England Patriots slotback Rob Gronkowski, the event’s grand marshal, before boarding an electric car that took him would carry throughout the journey. The city of Boston is always there to support people, no matter what the event. The temperature is ideal. »
The festivities began around six a.m., when race director Dave McGillivray sent out about 30 members of the Massachusetts National Guard.
The starting line was painted to read “100 Years in Hopkinton,” commemorating Ashland’s move to Hopkinton in 1924 to conform to the official Olympic marathon distance.
“In Hopkinton, it’s probably the coolest thing in town,” said Maggie Agosto, a 16-year-old resident who went to the start line with a friend to watch the race.
The annual race held on Patriots’ Day, a national holiday that commemorates the start of the Revolutionary War, also falls on One Boston Day, the city’s commemoration of the victims of the 2013 marathon bombings. finish line on Boylston Street, bagpipes accompanied Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and family members of the victims as they laid a pair of wreaths at the sites of the explosions.
A race volunteer, Hank Lopez, 63, stood at his post near the starting line. He then joined the race himself, putting on a bib and taking part in his 100e marathon. For a runner who typically competes in marathons with far fewer competitors, this was his first Boston Marathon.
“It’s the 100e anniversary of Hopkinton and the Boston Marathon, and a 100e marathon for me,” said Lopez, who has run multiple marathons this year to make sure the Boston marathon becomes his 100th.e. “The marathon is world famous. »
The city, which is located about 26 miles west of Boston, was once again the gathering place for a peloton of nearly 30,000 runners taking part in this ride to Copley Square in the Massachusetts metropolis.
With Jennifer McDermott of the Associated Press