Olympic women marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir and her male compatriot Evans Chebet will each pocket Sh17.3 million (150, 000 dollars) for winning this year’s Boston Marathon women and men races respectively on Monday.

Jepchirchir, las year’s New York Marathon champion, won her Boston debut by edging Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh in the final strides, making it her fifth victory in a row since 2019, in 2:21:01. That was good enough to beat Yeshaneh by four second, with Kenya’s Mary Ngugi coming third in 2:21:32.

Chebet on the other hand held off two past champions to win the men’s crown in two hours, six minutes and 51 seconds to top the first all-Kenyan podium since 2012, beating 2019 Boston winner Lawrence Cherono by 30 seconds, with defending champion Benson Kipruto settling for third spot in a time of 2:07:27.

The Boston Marathon otganisers doled out a total of Sh105 million ($879,500) across professional divisions. First-place winners were receiving Sh 17.3m in the open division (the elite runners), Sh 2.9m ($25,000) in the wheelchair division, Sh577,000 ($5,000) for masters (runners over 40) and Sh173,100 ($1,500) for the para division. 

Second-place winners Cherono and Yeshaneh earned Sh 8.7 million ($75,000) each. Jepchirchir ranked Boston among her greatest victories after the race. “ It means a lot to me,” she said.

“I believe in myself more.

 I still have more victories to come. I just believed in myself. I usually have hope.When you see the finish line, that’s when more energy comes.”