BELAYNEH REPEATS AS BOSTON HALF-MARATHON CHAMPION
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
BOSTON (09-Nov) — Ethiopia’s Fantaye Belayneh repeated as the Boston Half-Marathon women’s champion this morning, running a patient race and ultimately winning with a powerful sprint for the tape. The 25 year-old, who represents adidas, clocked 1:08:51, just two seconds ahead of compatriot Melknat Wudu. She recorded the fourth-fastest winning time on the hilly and winding course which takes in some of the Boston area’s most beautiful parklands and residential neighborhoods. She won $15,000 in prize money.
“I’m so happy, and I’m thrilled I won back-to-back,” a smiling Belayneh told Race Results Weekly through a translator.
Belayneh was content to stay tucked in the lead pack for most of the race. Evaline Chirchir of Kenya and Megan Sailor of nearby Dorchester set the early pace. The first five kilometers, which featured plenty of hills, was covered in 16:23. Chirchir, Sailor, Wudu, and Kenyans Mercy Chelangat, Grace Loibach, and Monicah Ngige were part of a lead pack of ten women. Three other Americans –Molly Born, Keira D’Amato, and Everlyn Kemboi– were part of the lead group.
Sailor led through the fourth mile, which passed in a swift 5:11. The pace was getting a little hot for D’Amato, who is training for the Valencia Marathon on December 7. The 41 year-old decided to drift back.
“Disconnecting from the group, I felt like I didn’t have another option, unfortunately,” D’Amato told Race Results Weekly. “Going through the hills and the wind, alone, that was a battle in itself.”
The first real move happened in the sixth mile where Chirchir, Belayneh and Wudu picked up the pace. Running single file, the three ran a 5:02 split for the sixth mile, and crossed the 10-K mark in 32:27. That whittled the lead group down to six: Chirchir, Wudu, Belayneh, Chelangat, Loibach, and Ngige. Kemboi was close behind, but losing contact, and Sailor was 11 seconds back. D’Amato and Born were running in ninth and tenth place, respectively.
The pace slowed in the ninth mile to a pedestrian 5:30. That was the signal for Belayneh to make her another move. She scooted to the front, and tried to open a gap. Wudu followed closely at first, but then drifted back. Despite running 5:02 for the tenth mile, Belayneh’s move didn’t stick. Loibach was the only one who was dropped (she would eventually finish seventh in 1:10:00).
“The move I made, I wanted to move out and lead to the finish,” Belayneh said later. “That’s the reason I decided to move on.”
But with five women left in contention and five kilometers still to go, Belayneh decided she’d wait for the final meters to decide the race. The pack skinnied down to four by the 20-K point (1:05:33): Belayneh, Wudu, Chirchir, and Ngige. Belayneh liked her chances.
“I trained very well,” she said. “I knew I could be the winner.”
The final kilometer is capped by a challenging uphill, and using her knowledge of the course she waited for the short, flat section right before the finish line in Franklin Park. She stepped on the gas, and only Wudu was able to stay close.
“It turned out to be good,” Belayneh said of her final sprint. “Then God helped me, and I won.”
Chirchir, who had done most of the leading today, took third in 1:09:01. Ngige got fourth in 1:09:07, and Chelangat took fifth in 1:09:09. Behind the action at the front, Sailor –who was doing a great job of running the tangents– got past Loibach before the 20-K point to finish sixth in a personal best 1:09:39. She runs for the Boston Athletic Association’s High Performance Team coached by Irish Olympian Mark Carroll.
“My goal coming in was just to commit,” Sailor told Race Results Weekly. “I think I did a great job of committing the first five miles, and then they dropped it down and it was a little bit aggressive for me at that point. I knew as long as I just held strong throughout I would come home strong.”
Born finished eighth in her half-marathon debut (1:10:11), Kemboi took ninth (1:10:18), and D’Amato rounded out the top-10 in 1:11:18, a time which would have won here on eight previous occasions. D’Amato was upbeat about her race.
“That was a good grind, a really good grind,” said D’Amato. “I felt like I ran within myself, and strong. The hills got me a little bit, and my glutes locked up a little bit. But, it’s good. It’s everything you’re going to feel in the marathon.”
The men’s race broke up more quickly. By the 10-K point (28:49), only four athletes remained in the lead group: Kenyans Isaia Lasoi and Andrea Kiptoo, American Chandler Gibbens, and Eritrean Yemane Haileselassie, the race’s defending champion. Santiago Catrofe of Uruguay was back in fifth place, about six seconds behind.
Lasoi –who came into today’s race with the fastest personal best of 58:10– pushed the pace through 10 miles (46:14), and only Kiptoo remained with him. Haileselassie was down by 12 seconds, and Gibbens was back about 21 seconds. Catrofe had passed Gibbens and was running in fourth place. By the 20-K mark (57:53) Lasoi had opened a 25-second gap on Kiptoo, and none of his rivals were going to catch him today. He clocked 1:00:59, the third-fastest winning time at this event. Like Belayneh he won $15,000 in prize money.
“This is my first time (in Boston),” said Lasoi. “From 17-K to the finishing it was a tough course. Hilly.”
Lasoi had hoped to run faster.
“My aim was to break the course record,” said the adidas-sponsored athlete. “When I see (the time) at 15-K I decided to go for the win. I tried to push it.”
Catrofe had an excellent second half, moving up from sixth at 10-K to second at the finish. He was still in third place at the 20-K mark, but passed Kiptoo in the final kilometer and clocked a personal best 1:01:23. Kiptoo, who made his debut at the distance, took third in 1:01:30, and Haileselassie finished fourth in 1:01:45, one second faster than his winning time one year ago.
Gibbens, who is preparing for the USATF Cross Country Championships on December 6 in Portland, Ore., had a solid second half. He ran a personal best 1:01:57 to take fifth place. He ran the mostly downhill first 10-K in 28:49, and the mostly uphill second 10-K in 29:52.
“You could feel the hills,” said Gibbens, who represents Saucony. “I mean for me, it was feeling good until it didn’t, and then it was just getting through the rest of the race, just the same as cross country and sticking your nose in it.”
The professional wheelchair champions were Americans Yen Hoang on the women’s side (1:01:02), and Miguel Vergara on the men’s (49:06). Both athletes won by comfortable margins (Vergara won by five and a half minutes), and each earned $5000 in prize money.
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Today’s race had just over 7000 finishers, up from about 6500 last year. It was the third and last event of the 2025 Boston Athletic Association’s Distance Medley which began with the Boston 5-K last April, and continued with the Boston 10-K last June. Next year’s series begins on Saturday, April 18 with the Boston 5-K, two days before the Boston Marathon.
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