\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kenya\u2019s Hellen Obiri retained her Boston Marathon title after winning the women\u2019s race held Monday in Boston,USA.<\/strong><\/p>\n Obiri cut the tape in 2:22:37 to win her third marathon race in four outings so far.<\/p>\n Obiri, past winner Edna Kiplagat and 2022 New York winner Sharon Lokedi featured in the sizeable pack, along with 2015 world 5000m silver medallist Senbere Teferi, 2022 world silver medallist Judith Korir, world bronze medallist Fatima Gardadi, and Ethiopia\u2019s Buze Diriba.<\/p>\n Just before 30km, USA\u2019s Emma Bates attempted to make a break. Her time running a few strides ahead of the pack was short lived, though, and by 21 miles she had fallen behind the lead group.<\/p>\n The pace started to ramp up with about seven kilometres remaining. By 35km, reached in 2:00:48, the pack was down to 12 women with Obiri poised ominously near the front.<\/p>\n About six minutes later, Obiri, Lokedi and Kiplagat broke away to form a lead trio, leaving behind Ethiopia\u2019s Workenesh Edesa. After another four minutes of running, two-time Boston winner Kiplagat, now aged 44, had been dropped, leaving Obiri and Lokedi out in front.<\/p>\n Soon after passing through 40km together in 2:15:54, Obiri broke away from Lokedi to begin her long drive from home. Lokedi never let Obiri too far out of her sights, but similarly struggled to get back on level terms with the two-time world 5000m champion.<\/p>\n Obiri, displaying the same finishing strength that has carried the 34-year-old to many major victories and medals, charged through the line in 2:22:37, earning her third marathon victory in what was just her fourth career race over the distance.<\/p>\n Lokedi, also a relatively inexperienced marathon runner, claimed second place in 2:22:45, while Kiplagat completed the Kenyan podium sweep in 2:23:21.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew that Sharon was very strong so I tried my best at the end,\u201d Obiri said after the race. \u201cI tried to push, but she was still close behind me. To win here makes me so very happy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I won here last year, I was not that familiar with the marathon. This year my training was perfect and I trusted everything we were doing.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning is something very precious to me,\u201d she added. \u201cAfter winning here, I really hope I\u2019ll be chosen to compete at the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile Ethiopia\u2019s Sisay Lemma \u00a0won the men\u2019s race in 2:06:17.<\/p>\n For Lemma, it was a race of redemption, following two previous outings in the US city that ended in disappointment. His winning time is the fourth fastest in Boston history.<\/p>\n Lemma made an early break in the men\u2019s race and built up a huge lead, eventually winning by 41 seconds.<\/p>\n Ten men passed through the first 5km in 14:21, but that still wasn\u2019t quite swift enough for Lemma, who increased his pace and started to pull away from the pack. He reached 10km in 28:28, by which point he already had a 25-second margin over an eight-man chase pack that included Evans Chebet and Gabriel Geay \u2013 the top two finishers from last year.<\/p>\n Over the course of the next five kilometres, Lemma had added almost a minute to his lead, reaching 15km in 42:43, 81 seconds ahead of his pursuers.<\/p>\n He reached the half way point in 1:00:19 \u2013 the fastest ever half-way split recorded in Boston \u2013 by which point the chase pack was down to five men: Chebet, Albert Korir, Cybrian Kotut, John Korir and Haftu Teklu.<\/p>\n By the time Lemma reached 20 miles (1:33:48), he had increased his lead to two minutes and 49 seconds and was still just about on schedule to break Geoffrey Mutai\u2019s course record of 2:03:02 from 2011. But he had some of the toughest parts of the course to contend with.<\/p>\n He slogged his way up Heartbreak Hill in 5:28 but his lead was starting to reduce as Chebet, John Korir, Albert Korir and Mohamed Esa ran together up the steepest section of the race.<\/p>\n From that point onwards, the chasers continued to reduce Lemma\u2019s leading margin. With two miles to go, though, Lemma still had a 90-second cushion over Chebet and John Korir, who were running side by side, both looking set to claim the other podium places.<\/p>\n Despite his pace continuing to slip, Lemma\u2019s lead proved too much for his opponents and he went on to cross the line in 2:06:17. There \u00a0was some excitement further back, though, as the strong-finishing Esa went from fifth at 23 miles to second by the finish line, claiming the runner-up spot in 2:06:58.<\/p>\n Chebet, the defending champion, this time finished third in 2:07:22 \u2013 his fourth consecutive podium finish in a marathon major.<\/p>\n \u201cI previously didn\u2019t finish in this race, so I wanted redemption for that, that\u2019s why I came,\u201d said Lemma, who last year moved to fourth on the world all-time list with his 2:01:48 victory in Valencia. \u201cThankfully I was able to redeem myself, so I\u2019m happy. My plan was to break the course record, but the hills at the end made me really tired.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason I raced in Boston is because the course is similar to the Olympic one, so hopefully this will be good preparation for the Paris Games.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Boston marathon \u00a0results<\/p>\n Women<\/p>\n 1 Hellen Obiri (KEN) 2:22:37<\/p>\n 2 Sharon Lokedi (KEN) 2:22:45<\/p>\n 3 Edna Kiplagat (KEN) 2:23:21<\/p>\n 4 Buze Diriba (ETH) 2:24:04<\/p>\n 5 Senbere Teferi (ETH) 2:24:04<\/p>\n 6 Mary Ngugi-Cooper (KEN) 2:24:24<\/p>\n 7 Workenesh Edesa (ETH) 2:24:47<\/p>\n 8 Fatima Gardadi (MAR) 2:24:53<\/p>\n 9 Tiruye Mesfin (ETH) 2:24:58<\/p>\n 10 Dera Dida (ETH) 2:25:16<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Men<\/p>\n 1 Sisay Lemma (ETH) 2:06:17<\/p>\n 2 Mohamed Esa (ETH) 2:06:58<\/p>\n 3 Evans Chebet (KEN) 2:07:22<\/p>\n 4 John Korir (KEN) 2:07:40<\/p>\n 5 Albert Korir (KEN) 2:07:47<\/p>\n 6 Isaac Mpofu (ZIM) 2:08:17<\/p>\n 7 CJ Albertson (USA) 2:09:53<\/p>\n 8 Yuma Morii (KEN) 2:09:59<\/p>\n 9 Cybrian Kotut (KEN) 2:10:29<\/p>\n 10 Zouhair Talbi (MAR) 2:10:45<\/p>\n The post Obiri retains title in Boston as Lemma gains redemption<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Kenya\u2019s Hellen Obiri retained her Boston Marathon title after winning the women\u2019s race held Monday in Boston,USA. Obiri cut the tape in 2:22:37 to win her third marathon race in four outings so far. Obiri, past winner Edna Kiplagat and 2022 New York winner Sharon Lokedi featured in the sizeable pack, along with 2015 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27381\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}