Kenya’s Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri are hopeful of making history when they will take part in the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2024.
While Obiri will hope to defend her title, Chebet’s main focus will be to become the first men’s three-time winner in Boston since Robert Cheruiyot. The New York Marathon former champion will be lining up for the third straight time in the world’s oldest annual marathon.
The last four men’s winners and the last three previous three top finishers in the women’s category have been Kenyans.
Chebet is going to Massachusetts with high hopes given that he has never lost a marathon since finishing fourth at the 2021 London Marathon. Boston also represents one of his best hunting grounds given that his breakthrough win in the World Marathon Majors Series was in Boston.
His other achievement in the marathon is a 2023 triumph which saw him beat top rivals that included Eliud Kipchoge, a double Olympic marathon champion.
He is heading to the town again, hoping to achieve a rare fete in history; become only the second man to win the Marathon thrice since Cheruiyot did in 2008.
However, Chebet will not be the fastest man in the field since his personal best is 2:03:00, he will not be the fastest man on the entry list. Sisay Lemma, the Ethiopian who won the London Marathon in 2021, is the fastest.
Tanzanias Geay is among the fastest men as he enjoys a personal best of 2:03:00, which puts him at par with Chebet.
Obiri’s rivals
Meanwhile, Obiri, the favourite, will face some of the toughest rivals in what has been billed as the deepest in race history.
Obiri’s rivals are Ethiopia’s Worknesh Defaga, Edna Kiplagat, who is a two-time winner, USA’s Caroline Rotich, the reigning Valencia Marathon champion Sisay Lemma, and Tanzania’s national record holder Gabriel Geay.
The Kisii Express, who has also made remarkable achievements at the New York Marathon, will be in Boston for her fourth career marathon.
The performance at Boston will give a glimpse of how the two-time Olympic silver medallist at 5000m is ready for the Olympic Games after she was selected in Kenya’s team that will head to Paris for the global event.
Sharon Lokedi, the winner of the 2022 New York Marathon, Mary Ngugi-Cooper, who has finished in the top ten in four previous appearances at Boston in four previous, and the two-time world champion Edna Kiplagat, are the other Kenyans who will take part in the April 15 event.
Kiplagat, 44, will be one of the oldest among the top runners on the course.
The Ethiopian unit also comprises Worknesh Degefa, the 2019 Boston Marathon 2019 champion, and Hiwot Gebremaryam.
