ETHIOPIANS YIHUNE & HAMBESE TAKE BOSTON 5-K TITLES
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
BOSTON (18-Apr) — On a chilly and foggy morning here in Back Bay, Ethiopians Addisu Yihune and Gela Hambese won the 16th edition of the Boston 5-K presented by Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute. Yihune, 23, who represents adidas, used a powerful burst of speed in the final kilometer to win in a course and event record 13:14. Hambese, who is also 23 and also represents adidas, repeated as race champion, albeit in a much slower time of 15:28 (she ran 14:53 last year). Both athletes won $ 8,000 in prize money, and Yihune earned an additional $ 5,000 for setting a new event record.
BIG MEN’S PACK EARLY ON
After starting next to the Public Garden on Boylston Street, 17 men crossed the one-mile mark on Commonwealth Avenue in a solid 4:28. No doubt ignoring the beautiful pink magnolia blossoms and the multi-million dollar townhouses along the side of the road, Edwin Kurgat and Patrick Kiprop of Kenya, Yihune, and Cooper Teare of the United States were among the leaders. Also near the front was Morocco’s Mohammed El Youssfi, last Sunday’s Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile champion, who was running on only five days of rest.
The course features five sharp turns in the middle of the race, ultimately sending the athletes back towards the famous Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston Street. There was some surging in that middle mile, first on Bay State Road and then on Silber Way, where Kiprop and Yihune were at the front. They cut down the pace to 4:11 in the second mile, and that slashed the pack to just five: Kiprop, Kurgat, Yihune, El Youssfi, and Ethiopia’s Mezgebu Sime. Teare was just three seconds back in seventh position.
“They pushed hard, and I think I just got caught a little bit off-guard,” Teare told Race Results Weekly. “So, I was in no-man’s land longer than I wanted to be.”
Yihune, who has a 5000m personal best of 12:49.65, had plenty of energy left for the race’s final 1.1 miles. Making a right turn on Hereford Street before the final left turn on Boylston for the approximately 600-meter straightaway to the finish line, Yihune had about three steps on Sime. Kurgat was in third position, and Kiprop in fourth. Yihune hit the gas again and appeared to already be in a full sprint.
“I knew I needed to push at the end,” Yihune told reporters through a translator. “That’s what I did for my strategy. That’s exactly what I did.”
Yihune ran 4:08 for the third mile to put the race away. Two weeks ago, he ran a sizzling 12:54 at a 5-K in Lille, France, where he finished second, but today he was the winner. His time was six seconds faster than Ben True’s 2017 event record of 13:20 (run on a slightly different course).
“I’m thrilled that I won,” said Yihune. “I am so happy.”
Sime held on to second position all the way to the finish, crossing the line in 13:21. Kurgat got third in 13:23, and Teare rolled up Kiprop and El Youssfi to take fourth in a personal best 13:25. He was pleased with his race.
“It was really good practice to be able to push from the front,” Teare said. “I knew there was a strong group behind me, so to be able to work through the gears and not let anyone pass me and get a couple of the guys in the lead pack in the last mile was a really big confidence booster.”
El Youssfi, who had been with the leaders throughout the race, faded to seventh in 13:31. Kiprop got fifth in 13:26, and American Anthony Camerieri came from behind to take sixth in 13:30.
THE BIG BATTLE IN THE WOMEN’S RACE WAS FOR SECOND
In the women’s contest, the lead pack was a smaller 10 at the one-mile mark. Hambese was tucked behind Americans Katie Izzo and Rachel Smith and Germany’s Lea Meyer. They split a sensible 5:05, but Hambese cut the pace down to 4:59 for the second mile. Only Izzo –who made her 10-mile debut last Sunday at the Cherry Blossom race– was confident enough to stay with the diminutive Ethiopian. Mercy Jelimo of Kenya and Rachel Smith of the United States were in third and fourth, respectively, about five seconds back.
With a big surge in the third mile, Hambese dropped Izzo with a 4:53 split. That gave her a five-second margin at the finish.
“I pushed, and that made me win,” she said through a translator.
Izzo seemed to have second place locked up, but Smith mounted a powerful charge in the final mile and caught up to Izzo right before the tape.
“Rachel really came back,” said Izzo, her eyes wide with amazement. “Literally 10 steps before the line (she caught me). I fought back and tried to out-lean her.”
The official timing report showed that Smith beat Izzo by one-tenth of a second, but both athletes were given the same official time: 15:33. Both women were in good spirits as they waited for the official results to be posted.
“I passed her, but she fought back,” said Smith, who, like Izzo, had raced the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile last Sunday. She added, “She crushed me in the 10 (mile), I’ll tell you. This is a little bit more my speed.”
Meyer, who trains here in Boston, took fourth in 15:35, and American Katie Camarena was fifth in 15:37.
MCFADDEN AND HUG TAKE WHEELCHAIR TITLES
Tatyana McFadden of the United States and Marcel Hug of Switzerland took the professional wheelchair titles in 12:29 and 10:25, respectively. It was Hug’s fourth win in a row, and both athletes will contest the Boston Marathon on Monday. Hug will be trying for his ninth Boston Marathon title.
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According to the Boston Athletic Association, 9280 athletes crossed the finish line this morning, up slightly from 9144 last year.
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