Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia won the Boston Marathon on Monday for the first time, with a record of 2:06:17 for the men’s event. Lemma set the early pace, launching into a commanding lead. After finishing the Valencia Marathon last month in 2:01:48, he is now the fourth-fastest man in history.
Even though the pursuing group got closer to Lemma as the race went on, the 33-year-old managed to hang on for his second major marathon triumph, following his 2021 London Marathon win.
Lemma finished one minute and five seconds ahead of double-defending champion Evans Chebet in third place, and 41 seconds ahead of Mohamed Esa in second.
Lemma: Hot favorite
With his exceptional results in his previous games, Lemma is now deemed one of the favorites to win a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Moreover, in the women’s race, Kenyan Hellen Obiri held onto her championship from 2023.
Everything hinged on a thrilling finish between Sharon Lokedi, the previous New York City Marathon champion, and reigning champion Obiri. The last four miles saw the two running neck and neck, but Obiri managed to push ahead and hold onto her title by just eight seconds after finishing in 2:22:37.
Obiri is the first female winner of the Boston Marathon in back-to-back years since 2004’s and 2005’s Catherine Ndereba. In November 2023, she also triumphed in the New York Marathon.
The Boston Athletic Association announced that Kenyan Hellen Obiri will aim for a third consecutive Boston Marathon win in April, while Ethiopian Sisay Lemma will also defend his championship title in the fast men’s division.
Since her marathon debut in 2022, the 35-year-old Kenyan has dominated the distance event. Obiri has also won the New York race in 2023 and took home bronze in the Paris Olympics last year.
Obiri, who will be defending her Boston Marathon title, said: “Defending a win is never easy, and to win the Boston Marathon twice in a row was hard, but I am happy to have done it… On race day I will again push for the win and hope to make it three in a row.”
Obiri will be joined at the starting line by former champions Edna Kiplagat, also from Kenya, who has won twice, and Des Linden of the United States.
In an Instagram post, Obiri shared: “Back to the @bostonmarathon in April aiming for title #3”
Lemma is now deemed to be the fastest man in the competition with a personal best record of 2:01:48. He will now compete against a strong Kenyan group of athletes, including Chicago champion John Korir and two-time winner Evans Chebet.
Lemma declared: “I was very happy after winning the Boston Marathon last year, and in 2025 I know it will be an even bigger challenge to win again… I was not completely ready at the Valencia Marathon last December, but I will be 100 per cent ready next April because the Boston Marathon is a special event.”
The Boston Marathon’s 129th race is scheduled to be on April 21, 2025.
Sisay Lemma, an Ethiopian long-distance runner, proved his mettle once more by winning the 42nd Valencia Marathon and shattering Kelvin Kiptum’s race record by five seconds.
Lemma continues to dominate marathon scene
It was only in October of this year that Lemma clinched the first ever title at the inaugural Runkara Half-Marathon in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, with an astounding record of 61 minutes and 9 seconds, edging past Chimdessa Debele and Vincent Nyageo.
Just a few months after this success, Lemma ran another marathon, this time a full one, in the Spanish city of Valencia. Kelvin Kiptum, the world record-holding Kenyan runner, had set the previous course record in 2022, when he stormed to victory and got to the finish line in just 2:01:53.
But Lemma, who is just as formidable on his own turf, was able to break that record.
Valencia, the Spanish city also known as ‘ciudad del running’, greeted the marathoners with fine weather. The conditions were ideal for running, and taking advantage of this, the pacemakers quickly got to work as they ran ahead of the rest of the pack and covered the first five kilometers in a mere time of 14:28.
For the next several kilometers, they ran at the same brisk tempo, during which Lemma, Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay, Kenya’s Kibiwott Kandie and Alexander Mutiso, Ethiopia’s Dawit Wolde and Chalu Deso alongside Cheptegei, were recognized as the race’s seven leaders.
Lemma, Geat, Deso, and Wolde were still pushing ahead at 1:08, with Kandie, Mutiso, and Cheptegei far behind.
Approximately thirty kilometers into the race, Kandie, Lemma, and Wolde had now separated themselves from the other four competitors.
The decisive moment occurred at 1:42 of the race when Lemma started to pull away from the pack and gradually create a sizable lead over Wolde and Kandie.
In the final stretch, Lemma continued to surge ahead and reached the 40th kilometer in 1:55:12.
Determined to hold onto his lead, he then charged the final two and a half kilometers at an incredible pace, finishing in 2:01:48, beating Kiptum’s record by five seconds and climbing to fourth place in the men’s global all-time list.
Sisay Lemma finishes first in the 2023 Valencia Marathon
For any athlete who has yet to make his or her mark in history, reaching the finish line knowing they’ve won the race can be a new and thrilling sensation. However, this was not the case for Eliud Kipchoge, who achieved the milestone of winning the Berlin Marathon for the fifth time in his career on September 24.
Two days before the event, Kipchoge gave an interview to Olympics.com in which he expressed his apprehension regarding the marathon.
“I am nervous,” Kipchoge confessed. “But the nervousness shows I am ready for the big task on Sunday….”
True to his words, Kipchoge did come ready for the marathon that spanned 42.195 kilometers.
He immediately showed his speed in the first 5 kilometres of the race, leading the rest of the pack. And, according to Runner’s World, this continued until he hit the 10k, the half-mark, and then the 30k mark, where he managed to shake off the rest of his rivals and cement his status as the race leader. As his speed and stamina led him to the finish line, he clocked an astonishing time of 2:02:42, clinching first place for the fifth time.
Kipchoge surpassed Gebrselassie’s records
Kenneth Kipkemoi of Kenya came in second with a time of 2.03:13, and Tadese Takel of Ethiopia came in third with a time of 2.03:24.
Up until 2022, Haile Gebrselassie held the record for the most wins, with four consecutive titles, according to Olympics.com. He also set two world records for the fastest time in the marathon way back in 2007 and 2008. He registered a time of 2:04:26 in ’07 and went on to improve on this the next year with 2:03:59.
However, Kipchoge surpassed Gebrselassie’s records and became the only person to have conquered the marathon five times. In addition, Kipchoge also shattered the world record, first in 2018 when he ran 2:01:39 in the race, and then in 2022 when he ran 30 seconds faster than his previous record of 2:01:09.
In addition to these achievements, Kipchoge also won at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2020 Tokyo Olympics, clinching gold medals at the prestigious event.
His victory at the Berlin Marathon was announced on World Athletics’ X account:
“History-maker 👑
🇰🇪’s @EliudKipchoge becomes the first man in history to win the @berlinmarathon for the 5th time 🙌
Kelvin Kiptum, a Kenyan-born athlete, was a relatively unknown figure in the international marathon scene until 10 months ago. At that time, the public only knew the names of renowned marathon runners, such as Eliud Kipchak, Haile Gerrelassie, and Abimbola Bikila.
But a year, as they say, can make all the difference. On December 2022, Kiptum burst onto the marathon scene and immediately made a splash in the headlines when he ran the fastest debut time of 2:01:53 at Valencia , the fifth fastest time in history. Four months later, he improved on this record, garnering gasps from all corners of the world, and won the April marathon in London in just 2:01:25, recorded as the second-fastest time ever, behind only the greatest-of-all time Kipchoge’s record of 2:01:09.
Kiptum at Chicago Marathon
Even without shattering world records, finishing and taking first place in a 26.2 mile race can be challenging. But evidently not for rookie Kiptum, who broke the record at the age of 23 while running just his third marathon in his life. He clocked a record-breaking time of 2:00:35, knocking 34 seconds off the previous world record of 2:01:09.
WORLD RECORD: We have a new man in town. Kelvin Kiptum just broke Eliud Kipchoge's World Record with an unofficial time of 2:00:35! UNBELIEVABLE! pic.twitter.com/XfeMEzPveZ
Kiptum adopted a ‘negative split’ strategy at the race, running at a slower pace in the first half (60:48) and accelerating in the second half (59:47). In the first 10 kilometers of the marathon, only two runners—Daniel Mateiko and Ronald Kirui—were able to keep up with Kiptum’s unwavering fast strides. However, ultimately the two were left behind in the race to be replaced by last year’s champion in the Chicago marathon, Benson Kipruto and Olympic bronze medalist Bashir Abdi.
But even then, Kiptum had still managed to keep a significant gap between him and his closest rivals. In the last few hundred meters of the race, Kiptum was running solo on the road, and by this time it was clear that he would win the race, and there was now only the matter of the world record being broken that was hanging in the air.
As he broke the tape at the finish line, he clocked a time of 2:00:35, setting a new world marathon record. Upon reaching the finish line, Kiptum was met with a large and enthusiastic crowd, which included a warm embrace from Bank of America Chicago Marathon Executive Race Director Carey Pinkowski.
Kiptum won the race by a margin of 3:27 over Benson Kipruto, who clocked 2:04:02, placed second at the event, and Bashir Abdi , who clocked 2:04:32 and placed third at the event.
“I feel so happy. I was well prepared. I was going for the course record, but fortunately, I got the world record,” said Kiptum after the race, as per sports brief.
In the run-up to this year’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon 2023, expectations were sky-high for the defending champion, Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich. The 29-year-old marathon runner had won the esteemed competition for two consecutive years, with an impressive time of 2:22:31 in the 2021 edition and 2:14:18 in the 2022 edition. During that time, Chepngetich also made rounds online, as she was just 14 seconds away from surpassing the previous world record set by Brigid Kosgei, a fellow Kenyan, with a time of 2.14:04.
This year, she headed into the marathon heavily favored to win the gold but struggled to compete with a strong rival, Sifan Hassan, who overtook her at the 17th mile of the race to deny what would have been her third Chicago marathon title.
Sifan Hassan’s latest endeavors
Hassan entered the marathon scene rather late compared to most of her competitors. Despite being new to running the dreaded 26.2-mile marathon, Hassan’s abilities proved to be more than sufficient, as she outpaced every other runner in the TCS London Marathon last April and ran a Dutch national record of 2:18:33, claiming the gold medal for her first marathon.
And this time proved to be no different than her last marathon, as she was able to shake off her rivals as she ran to victory in a record-breaking time of 2:13:44, the second fastest marathon time in history, behind only Tigist Assefa’s Berlin record of 2:11:53.
Hassan vs. Chepngetich
Chepngetich began the race with a commanding lead, reaching the 10-kilometer mark in a time of 31:05. At the same time, Hassan followed in close pursuit of the Kenyan reigning champion, gradually closing in on the lead until the 15-kilometer mark.
It took nearly an hour for the two runners to share the lead in the marathon race. However, at the 17th mile, Sifat made a decisive move to overtake Chepngetich and remain in the lead for the rest of the race. By the 30th kilometer, Hassan had increased her lead to 10 seconds, securing her position as the leader.
Near the end of the race, Sifat Hassan ran to the might of her abilities and, for the second time around, broke off the tape at the end of the finish line with a time of 2:13:44.
Chepngetich settled in for second place with a time of 02:15:37, while Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu came in third with a time of 02:17:09.
“I just love the pain, and the time was like you hate yourself, but the way you finish, you want to do it again. It is so amazing. I don’t know, I loved it. It is my second marathon and I win, and that’s unbelievable. I can’t describe how I feel,” Sifat Hassan said in an interview with NBC Chicago.
Who is Hassan—the woman who stunned the defending champion?
Sifat Hassan is an Ethiopian-born Dutch track and field athlete.
She has, for her entire career, specialized in middle- and long-distance running, and she’s received many accolades over the years, placing within the top three and climbing the podium in most of the competitions she’s joined. But, perhaps, her most notable achievement came in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she won two gold medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m medals and a bronze medal in the 1500m. Most recently, she also competed in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, where she was able to medal a silver in the 5000m and a bronze in the 1500m.
