BOSTON (AFP) - Evans Chebet retained his Boston Marathon title and fellow Kenyan Hellen Obiri won the women’s race on Monday but their compatriot and twice Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge failed to make the podium.
Chebet’s time of two hours five minutes and 54 seconds was 10 seconds ahead of Tanzanian Gabriel Geay while Kenya’s Benson Kipruto, the champion in 2021, took third spot in 2:06:06.
Chebet, who also won in New York last year, made his break after the 35km mark but Geay refused to go down without a fight, and Kipruto caught up by 40km to make it a three-man race.
But with a mile to go Chebet had established an unassailable lead and was all on his own as he crossed the finish line to roars from the crowd, becoming the first man since 2008 to retain his Boston crown.
World record holder Kipchoge was among the biggest attractions at the World Marathon Major but lost his momentum around the halfway mark and finished sixth.
Running her second marathon, Obiri hung in with a tightly packed lead group for the entire race before breaking away with a mile to go and won in 2:21:38 to roars of approval from the Boston fans.
Ethiopian Amane Beriso, a favorite after producing the all-time third-fastest marathon in Valencia late last year, was unable to find her kick and could only watch helplessly as Obiri zoomed past. She finished 12 seconds behind.
The race marked the 10-year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings that claimed three lives and injured scores more in one of the most high-profile attacks on U.S. soil.