East African athletes dominate elite races as Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper wins women’s wheelchair crown
Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma enjoyed victories in the Boston Marathon on Monday (April 15) although they achieved their success with very different tactics. Lemma of Ethiopia built up a huge lead before hanging on to win the men’s race in 2:06:07, whereas Obiri successfully defended her title by surging clear of her rivals in the latter stages to clock 2:22:37.
A large group of women were together at halfway reached in 72:33 but the leaders were whittled down to fellow Kenyans Sharon Lodeki and veteran Edna Kiplagat as the runners came into the last 5km. The 44-year-old Kiplagat then began to drop off, leaving just Obiri and Lodeki. But Obiri, 34, who won the Boston and New York City marathons in 2023, had too much pace for her rival in the closing stages.
Lodeki, the 2022 New York City Marathon winner, ran 2:22:45 in second with the two-time Boston champion Kiplagat third in 2:23:21 as Obiri became the first woman since Catherine Ndereba 20 years ago to win back-to-back titles.
Emma Bates was the top US finisher in 12th in 2:27:14 as Sara Hall came 15th in 2:27:58 followed by 2018 Boston winner Des Linden in 16th in 2:28:27.
Hellen Obiri (Getty)
Lemma won by 41 seconds from fellow Ethiopian Mohamed Esa with defending men’s champion Evans Chebet of Kenya in third place, 65 seconds behind the winner, although his fans were sweating a little in the second half of the race as his sizeable advantage began to vanish.
At one stage Lemma enjoyed a lead of almost three minutes as the 33-year-old was clearly on a mission to beat the course record of 2:03:02, which was set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 when the runners enjoyed a tailwind on this point-to-point course.
Sisay Lemma (David Hicks)
Lemma, the 2021 London Marathon winner and fourth-fastest marathoner in history courtesy of his 2:01:48 win in Valencia four months ago, whizzed through the first 5km in 14:21 and the second 5km even quicker in 14:07 as he challenged his rivals to go with him if they dared. He passed halfway in 60:19 – on pace for 2:00:38 – and at 30km he was a massive 2:49 ahead of his rivals.
However he began to slow on the hilly sections after 20 miles and his 21st mile, which included Heartbreak Hill, was completed in 5:27 as his lead began to shrink.
His pursuers continued to close, but eventually ran out of road as Lemma held on.
Leading American was CJ Albertson with 2:09:53 in seventh.
Marcel Hug (Getty)
Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the men’s wheelchair race in a course record of 75:33 despite crashing at one stage. Amazingly he was just seven seconds short of the world best despite the accident.
Daniel Romanchuk of the United States was second in 80:37, followed by Britain’s David Weir in 82:12.
There was a British victory in the women’s wheelchair race, though, as Eden Rainbow-Cooper came home in 95:11.
Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Getty)
“It took everything,” she said, on becoming the first Brit to win any of the races in Boston since Geoff Smith won the men’s elite race in 1985.
“It’s so hard pushing by yourself. I’m so proud to represent my country and give my absolute best. I had absolutely nothing left at the end but the crowd carried me through. I couldn’t have pushed a metre more.”
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