KORIR, LOKEDI WIN BOSTON MARATHON IN FAST TIMES

BOSTON (21-Apr) — Cool temperatures, brilliant sunshine and only light winds helped Kenyans John Korir and Sharon Lokedi win their first Boston Marathon titles here today in fast times.  Korir, 28, broke the race open with a powerful surge in the 20th mile and scampered to the finish line on Boylston Street alone in a quick 2:04:45.  Lokedi, 31, won a two-way battle with compatriot and two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri in the 26th mile and smashed the course record by more than two and a half minutes, clocking 2:17:22.  Both athletes won $150,000 in prize money, and Lokedi earned an additional $50,000 bonus for breaking the course record.

KORIR GOES FROM THE PAVEMENT TO THE PODIUM

Korir’s race got off to an awful start.  About 100 meters into the competition he was tripped from behind and fell, ripping off his bib number.

“I fell at the start,” Korir told reporters after the race.  “I said, ‘should I stay down or get up?'”

He regained his feet quickly, tucked his crumpled bib into his shorts, and was running in 12th place by the 5-kilometer checkpoint, just two seconds behind the leaders Conner Mantz and Clayton Young of the United States, Patrick Tiernan of Australia, Yemane Haileselassie of Eritrea, and Wesley Kiptoo of Kenya.  In all, about 21 men were running together.

Korir, following the plan set forth by his coaches, Ron Mann and Haron Lagat, and his brother, Wesley Korir (the 2012 Boston Marathon champion) Korir stayed “quiet,” just grinding out the miles within the pack.  The pace was more than honest.  Through 20 kilometers the men surpassed all of the checkpoint times recorded by Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai when he set the course record of 2:03:02 in 2011.

“I was surprised at how many people were in that pack (going so fast),” Mantz said at the post-race press conference.  “The pack was quite large through halfway, and it was quite large at the 18-mile mark, and I was a little concerned.”

Indeed, there were 16 men within two seconds of the halfway leader, Canada’s Rory Linkletter, including last year’s champion Sisay Lemma.  Like earlier in the race, Korir remained in the pack, waiting.

In the famously downhill 16th mile, the pack ran a blistering 4:32 split.  That was too much for Lemma who dropped out.  Korir stayed tucked-in, then surged hard past the 20-mile mark just as Heart Break Hill begins.

“For me, that was the plan,” said Korir.  “We planned that with my coach and my brother.”

Korir, last October’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon champion, stunned the field with a 4:39, uphill split.  In one mile, he built an 18-second lead which grew to 39 seconds by 35 km.  Beginning with mile-20, he ran mile splits of 4:41, 4:39, 4:24, 4:38, and 4:41.  By the 24-mile mark he was up by 55 seconds and everybody else was running for second.

“It worked very well,” said Korir matter of factly about his move.  “And I’m happy.”

Korir spread his arms as he crossed the finish line, and was immediately embraced by his brother.  The Korirs became the first brothers to win the Boston Marathon, and John Korir became the first man since Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot to win the Chicago Marathon in the fall then Boston the following spring (Cheruiyot did it in 2006 and 2007).

Korir said that he did the same training for Boston as he did for Chicago, despite the fact that the Chicago course is completely flat.

“We did the same like Chicago,” Korir said, adding, “We repeated it for Boston.”

Behind Korir, a terrific battle was playing out for second place.  Mantz, Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu and Kenya’s Cybrian Kotut were running together.  Mantz tried to make a move to break up the pack, but his legs just didn’t have the snap that he had hoped.

“Over the last 1000 (meters) there were three of us,” said Mantz.  “I made a hard move and they responded as if I wasn’t making any moves.  It was a little bit humbling.”

Simbu and Kotut pulled away from Mantz, who would finish fourth in a personal best 2:05:08, the second-fastest time by an American at Boston.  The two Africans ran side-by-side until just a few meters from the finish where, sprinting in earnest, Simbu got a step on Kotut.  Both men were timed in 2:05:04, but Simbu got second and Kotut –a younger brother of former New York City Marathon champion Martin Lel– took third.  Debutante Muktar Edris of Ethiopia was fifth in 2:05:59, and Canada’s Linkletter –the race leader at halfway– took sixth in 2:07:02, the fastest Boston Marathon ever by a Canadian.

LOKEDI AND OBIRI DO BATTLE AGAIN IN THE WOMEN’S RACE

After a gentle opening mile of 5:46, the elite women made the collective decision to ramp-up the pace.  With Ethiopia’s Rahma Tusa on the front, they hit 5-K in 16:49, then dropped way down to 16:02 for the next 5-K (32:51 at 10-K).  Remarkably, 15 women were willing to stay with that pace, just 13 seconds slower than the course record pace set by Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba in 2014.

“The pace was hot from the start and I think that played out well for me,” said Lokedi.  “It was like go, go, go, go go.”

The lead women were just about level with course record pace by 15-K (49:10), but were well under that pace after Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw split the next five kilometers in 15:54.  Only Lokedi, Obiri, Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso and Kenya’s Irine Cheptai could hold that pace.  That group of five hit halfway in 1:08:46, and 25-K in 1:21:22.  That put them about one minute under course record pace.  Lokedi loved the fast pace.

“I was really grateful for them pushing from the start,” said Lokedi.  “Because I think that’s what made the outcome what it was.”

Cheptai was the first to fall off (she was 12 seconds behind by 30-K), then Beriso faded back by 35-K.  Lokedi, Obiri and Yehualaw stayed together through 24 miles (which went into the books at a blistering 4:53).  Lokedi was doing all of the leading, and she motioned to Obiri to come up and help her (she did not).

Early in the 26th mile, Obiri tried to surge away.  Lokedi immediately covered that move, then put in a surge of her own.  That was the decisive blow.  Lokedi ran the final mile in 5:04 (25.2 to 26.2), and that gave her a gap of 19 seconds over Obiri (2:17:41).  Yehualaw held on for third (2:18:06), and all three women broke Deba’s course record.

“I just tried to say, ‘stay strong and keep fighting,'” Lokedi said.  “Fight, fight, fight, fight.”

Cheptai took fourth in 2:21:32, and fifth went to Beriso in 2:21:58.  Jess McClain was the top American in seventh.  Moving up from 16th place at halfway, she clocked 2:22:43, tying Joan Benoit’s fourth-fastest time by a USA woman at this race set in 1983.  McClain, who finished fourth at the 2024 USA Olympic Team Trials Marathon, was delighted with her finish.

“First American is amazing, for sure,” said McClain, who did much of her training in the pre-dawn hours in Phoenix where she lives.  She added: “Today it felt like a win for me.”

HUG GETS NUMBER 8

Switzerland’s Marcel Hug won his 8th wheelchair title by over five minutes over American Daniel Romanchuk, clocking 1:21:34.  The win was particularly special for Hug because Bob Hall, the race’s first wheelchair champion 50 years ago, was in attendance.

“It’s a really special moment,” Hug told reporters.  He continued: “He opened the door for us to be able to participate here.”

American Susannah Scaroni won her second Boston title, defeating Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner with a fearless descent in the 16th mile.

“My years of experience gave me a lot of confidence not to brake on that hill,” Scaroni said.  She added: “I think I was just a little bit less cautious there.  Then we went into my favorite part, the uphills.”

Scaroni won by more than two minutes.  Like Hug, she won $50,000 in prize money.

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By 3:15 p.m., 21,727 runners had crossed the finish line (of about 28,928 starters).  The official number of finishers will not be known until tomorrow.

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