04/20/26 02:10:00
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04/20 14:08 CDT Defending champion John Korir breaks Boston Marathon record and
Sharon Lokedi also repeats
Defending champion John Korir breaks Boston Marathon record and Sharon Lokedi
also repeats
By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer
BOSTON (AP) --- John Korir outran the strongest field in Boston Marathon
history and still had enough energy left to bounce around Boylston Street after
learning he had blistered the course record, too.
The defending champion rode a tailwind on Monday to the fastest finish in the
race's 130-year history, winning in 2 hours, 1 minute, 52 seconds. That was 70
seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's then-world best in 2011, and the
fifth-fastest marathon of all time.
Korir said he knew he was on a record pace at the 40-kilometer mark, but he
didn't bother to check the clock as he crossed the finish line. He was informed
of his accomplishment by Boston Athletic Association president Jack Fleming,
and jumped for joy.
"When they told me I had run the course record, that's when I started to be
happy," said the 29-year-old Kenyan, who last year joined his brother to become
the first relatives to win the race. "I knew I would defend my title. But I
didn't know I could run that fast."
Sharon Lokedi joined Korir as a back-to-back champion, winning the women's race
in 2:18:51 --- a year after she shattered the course record by more than 2 1/2
minutes. The winners receive $150,000 and a gilded olive wreath sent from the
plains of Marathon, Greece; Korir will receive another $50,000 for the course
record.
Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, who was 55 seconds back, and 2021 champion
Benson Kipruto, another 3 seconds behind him, also were fast enough to beat the
previous record on the hilly course that typically rewards racing strategy more
than footspeed.
Kelvin Kiptum holds the marathon world record, with a 2:00:35 on the flatter
Chicago course in 2023.
"Boston is not (usually) about time," Kipruto said. "Today, it was about time."
Zouhair Talbi and Jess McClain ran the fastest times ever in Boston for
Americans --- leading the seven U.S. men and 12 U.S. women who finished in the
top 20.
Talbi, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics for Morocco and became a U.S.
citizen last year, was fifth in 2:03:45; McClain, who crossed in 2:20:49, also
finished fifth.
"I think we're in an era in distance running, on the men and women's sides, but
especially the women's side, where we're all making each other so much better
every time we line up with one another," McClain said. "And I think it's just
going to get stronger and stronger."
Korir recovered after falling at the start last year to claim the title won by
his brother Wesley in 2012.
This year, he broke away from the pack as it headed into the Newton hills and
opened a 40-second lead. Korir peeked behind him as he went through Kenmore
Square with a mile to go, sticking out his tongue and spreading his arms as he
ran down Boylston Street.
Lokedi moved toward the front of the pack around Mile 17 and charged up
Heartbreak Hill to pull ahead. On a day that started in the 30s but warmed to
45 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) by the start, Lokedi pulled off her gloves as
she went through Coolidge Corner in Brookline and smiled her way down Boylston
Street.
"I didn't know how fast I was going. I just wanted to run as fast as I could,"
said Lokedi, who realized on the bus to the start that she forgot her watch and
had to borrow one. "I just wanted to get to the finish line as fast as
possible."
Loice Chemnung was second, 44 seconds back --- a performance that would have
been a course record before Lokedi's 2:17:22 last year. Mary Ngugi-Cooper was
third, completing the Kenyan sweep of the women's podium.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his ninth wheelchair title in 1:16:06, a time
second only to his 2024 course record. He is one shy of the all-category record
of South African wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk's 10 Boston Marathon wins.
Two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of Champaign, Illinois, was second behind Hug
for the fourth straight time.
In the women's wheelchair race, Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain won her second
Boston title, finishing in 1:30:51 to beat runner-up Catherine Debrunner of
Switzerland by more than two minutes.
The athletes arrived in Hopkinton with frost on the ground and temperatures in
the 30s. Although it warmed up through the day, it was the coldest starting
temperature since 2018, when 38 degree temperatures combined with a headwind
and driving rain that led to the slowest winning times in more than 40 years.
But the clear skies and a tailwind on Monday had the fastest field in the
event's history expecting fast times for the second year in a row.
"Obviously the tailwind played into a lot of the approach," McClain said. "You
don't get these conditions every year, so if you're going to go full send and
?Carpe Diem,' this is the year to do it. And that was kind of the mindset."
Runners may have noticed some changes this year, with the race turning to a
crowd scientist for help in spreading things out a little so they don't face
bottlenecks on the narrow streets of the eight cities and towns along the
course. And at the start is a new statue of and by marathon pioneer Bobbi Gibb
--- the first statue on the course honoring a woman.
Jack Fultz, who was serving as grand marshal on the 50th anniversary of his
"Run for the Hoses," said the weather was the "polar opposite" from the day of
his 1976 win in temperatures approaching 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius).
"I am just trying to soak it all in, to remember it all," he said in Hopkinton
on Monday before the race. "There are almost are no words to fully describe the
kind of experience. You have a dream of a lifetime and all of a sudden it comes
true."
___
Associated Press Writer Jennifer McDermott contributed to this report.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports
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