by Justin Lagat
Evans Chebet, 2022 Boston Marathon, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
Peres Jepchirchir, 2022 Boston Marathon, photo by Kevin Morris / @kevmofoto
On an absolutely beautiful day in Boston, 28, 560 plus entrants celebrated the Boston Marathon with the hundreds of thousands of fans who were on the course, making more noise than many had heard in years. For 1000 plus days, the Boston Marathon had not been held in the spring, and today, April 18, 2022, it was back. This is the feature by Justin Lagat on the big win by Kenyans on both men’s and women’s races.
In a dramatic finish between Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir and Ethiopia’s Abanel Yeshaneh where the two fought up to almost the last 50m of the race, Jepchirchir emerged victorious after running 2:21:01 against Yeshaneh’s 2:21:05. Mary Ngugi came in a distant third in 2:21:32 slightly ahead of the ever-green Ednah Kiplagat who finished fourth in 2:21:40.
Evans Chebet broke away in a very long sprint to win the men’s race in 2:06:51 ahead of Lawrence Cherono who took second in 2:07:21. The defending champion, Benson Kipruto took 3rd in 2:07:27.
The women’s battle had begun quite early in the race just as they approached the 15km mark. The two runners in blue uniform; Peres Jepchirchir and Joyciline Jepkosgei took to the front and soon after there were just two other runners behind them; Ababel Yeshaneh and Azimeraw Degitu, but the latter would soon fate.
Yeshaneh hung behind and almost uncomfortably so close to Jepchirchir. In fact, at some point, Yeshaneh almost caused an accident when her shoe got in contact with Jepchirchir’s. But, Jepchirchir would overlook that after the race, “we apologized to each other. Yeshaneh is a good friend of mine,” she said. Jepkosgei was running comfortably alone, parallel to them on the other side of the road.
For the better part of the race, the three runners ran together as though they had mutually reached an agreement to go easy on each other until the last stages of the race.
However, as they approached the 40km point Jepkosgei suddenly slowed down a bit and a pack of two left her behind.
Ednah Kiplagat, in the company of Mary Ngugi, came and overtook Jepkosgei who would keep fading until she finished in 7th place.
The men had remained in a huge leading pack up to about the last eight kilometers of the race. There were still 15 of them together at the 30km point that was crossed at 1:30:59.
Evans Chebet made a surge at the 35km mark that left the pack in a single file as he began to open up a gap as he broke away with Gabriel Geay of Tanzania.
A chasing pack of Benson Kipruto, the defending champion and Lawrence Cherono soon overtook Geay who had begun to fade as they focused on bridging the gap between them and Chebet at the front.
In the end, it was a great day for Kenyan fans as their runners won both races at the 126th Boston Marathon.
