The 2024 winners of the Boston Marathon
Sisay Lemma, from Ethiopia, set an impressive pace and held on to win the Boston Marathon on Monday, finishing in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds. This time ranks as the 10th fastest in the race’s 128-year history. Lemma, who entered the marathon as the fastest runner in the field, became only the fourth person ever to finish a marathon in under 2 hours and 2 minutes, achieving this feat in Valencia last year. His performance in the 2021 London Marathon demonstrated his strength, as he separated himself from the other runners in Ashland and established a lead of over half a mile.
During the first half of the race, Lemma completed it in one hour and 19 minutes, a staggering 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai’s 2011 course record pace. Mutai, who finished that race in 2 hours, 3 minutes, and 2 seconds, set the fastest marathon time in history up to that point.
After crossing the finish line, Lemma dropped to the ground, rolled onto his back, and smiled. “I decided that I wanted to start fast early,” said Lemma, whose victory in London in 2021 was his only other major marathon win. “I maintained the pace and came out on top.”
In the women’s race, Hellen Obiri successfully defended her title. She sprinted ahead of Kenyan runner Sharon Lokedi on Boylston Street to secure victory by a margin of eight seconds. Obiri became the first woman to win back-to-back Boston Marathons since 2005, finishing the race in 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 37 seconds.
“Defending the title was not easy. Since Boston started, only six women have achieved this. So I asked myself, ‘Can I be one of them?’ If you want to be one of them, you need to work extremely hard,” Obiri said. “I am incredibly happy because I am now one of them. I have made my mark in the history books of Boston.”
Obiri left behind a group of more than a dozen runners in the second half of the race and faced a challenge from Sharon Lodeki in the final three miles. However, Obiri managed to overcome this challenge and secure the victory. Lodeki finished second in 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 45 seconds. Edna Kiplagat, a two-time champion at the age of 44, placed third with a time of 2 hours, 23 minutes, and 21 seconds. Kiplagat had finished 30th the previous year.
Wheelchair Division
Marcel Hug of Switzerland triumphed over a crash and secured his seventh Boston Marathon title in the men’s wheelchair race, establishing a new course record of 1 hour, 15 minutes, and 33 seconds on Monday.
This time surpasses his previous course record of 1 hour, 17 minutes, and 6 seconds set last year, and he narrowly missed setting a new world record by only seven seconds. This victory extends his streak of 11 consecutive major marathon titles.
American Daniel Romanchuk finished in second place, completing the race in 1 hour, 20 minutes, and 37 seconds, followed by Britain’s David Weir, who finished in 1 hour, 22 minutes, and 12 seconds. Hug, aged 38, took advantage of the mid-50s temperatures at the beginning of the race and established a lead of over 30 seconds ahead of his competitors by the halfway point.
In the women’s race, Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper secured her inaugural Boston crown, crossing the finish line in 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 11 seconds. She was followed by Switzerland’s Manuela Schar, who finished in 1 hour, 36 minutes, and 41 seconds, and Australia’s Madison de Rozario, with a time of 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 20 seconds.
This victory marks Rainbow-Cooper’s first major triumph. The 22-year-old finished in seventh place in Boston last year. Her previous best finishes in a major marathon were second place in Tokyo earlier this year and second place in Berlin in 2023.
Hug maintained control of the race until he encountered a crash while making the turn at the start of the Newton Hills section of the course, causing him to skid and collide with a barrier around the 18-mile mark. However, he promptly recovered and maintained a lead of nearly four minutes over the rest of the field.
“It was my fault,” Hug admitted. “I had too much weight and too much pressure from above on my steering, so I couldn’t steer properly.”
Hug and Rainbow-Cooper were awarded $40,000 each for their victories, in addition to a bonus of $50,000 for setting new records. Hug, who is a frontrunner for the Paris Paralympic marathon, will represent Switzerland in France this summer.
News Source:wbur.org