Double win for Kenya at Boston Marathon 

Kenya's duo of Peres Jepchirchir and Evans Chebet ensured that two vastly different races both ended with thrilling finishes when the BAA Boston Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Platinum Label road race, returned for its 126th edition on Monday.

While Olympic champion Jepchirchir was locked in a fierce battle with Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh right to the end, Chebet claimed a clear win after breaking away from a large lead group with a killer kick at 22 miles.

Achieving a Kenyan double, Jepchirchir clocked 2:21:01 to win by four seconds, while Chebet cruised to victory in 2:06:51, half a minute ahead of his compatriot Lawrence Cherono, the Tokyo Olympics fourth-place finisher.

The women’s race had been billed as a head-to-head between Jepchirchir and her compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei – last year's London Marathon winner and a fellow world half marathon record-breaker – and for a large part of the race that looked to be the case, with Yeshaneh adding to the challenge.

But when Jepkosgei was dropped at around 23 miles, Jepchirchir and Yeshaneh – who has also set a world half marathon record in her career – were left to fight for the finish.

Trading the lead numerous times in an exciting final mile, Jepchirchir dug deep to follow her Olympic and New York marathon wins last year with another victory – her fifth win from the six marathons she has contested in her career so far.

Yeshaneh couldn’t respond to Jepchirchir’s final powerful surge but was just a few seconds back, claiming the runner-up spot in 2:21:05 to add to her other top three finishes in Chicago and New York over the past few years.

Kenya’s Mary Ngugi came through to finish third in 2:21:32 and her compatriot Edna Kiplagat – the two-time world champion and winner in Boston in 2017 – finished fourth in 2:21:40.

"The course is tough, but I thank God that I managed to win the race," said Jepchirchir, who ran her marathon PB of 2:17:16 in Valencia in 2020. "I thought that Ababel was feeling strong. I pushed it and I felt tired and fell behind but I didn’t lose hope. I am feeling grateful and honoured."

In contrast to the women’s race, the men’s event featured a large lead group right up to 35km, which was when Chebet decided to make his move.

The 2020 world leader, thanks to his 2:03:00 Valencia Marathon win, had achieved top-four finishes in the previous 12 marathons he had completed, but his only DNF had come in Boston in 2018. He rebounded from that in style.

Running a 4:27 22nd mile followed by two miles each timed at 4:26, Chebet covered the 5km split from 35km to 40km in 13:55 to leave his rivals for dust.

Untroubled, he crossed the finish line in 2:06:51 for the first World Marathon Majors win of his career, beating 2019 Boston winner Cherono by exactly half a minute. Another former Boston winner, Kenya’s defending champion Benson Kipruto, was third in 2:07:27 and Tanzania's Gabriel Geay fourth in 2:07:53.

As he did in 2021, USA’s CJ Albertson had gone straight to the front of the men’s race but the large chase group was never far away and a pack of more than 30 athletes clocked 14:55 for the opening 5km.

Ethiopia’s London Marathon champion Sisay Lemma moved ahead at around the four-mile mark, which caused the pack to break up slightly. Kenya’s Bethwel Yegon joined him and then pushed on at 10km, passed in 29:38, with the lead group still 19 strong.

That pack remained as Yegon, Albertson and his US compatriot Mick Iacofano led through 15km in 44:43 and Albertson was a stride ahead as the half-way point was reached in 1:03:24.