Boston Marathon with eight former winners in the elite field

09.10.2021

| USA

Jörg Little

Eight former winners of the traditional Boston Marathon will start on Monday for the 125th edition in the US city. 20,000 participants are expected.

The Boston Marathon is celebrating a big anniversary next Monday (October 11) with high-class elite fields: The 125th edition of the race, which leads from the suburb of Hopkinton over an undulating and not easy to run course to Boston, takes place despite the Corona Pandemic took place. However, the organizers had to limit the number of participants to 20,000 runners. You have to show a negative corona test in Boston in order to receive the starting number.

The Boston Marathon will be the fourth round of the World Marathon Majors (WMM) to take place this fall, after Berlin, London and the race in Chicago on Sunday. The New York Marathon will follow on November 7th. None of these WMM races is as strong as the classic in Boston. 13 runners with best times of under 2:07 hours are on the start list, and 15 women are traveling to the US east coast with personal records of under 2:23 hours.

The fastest runners on the start list come from Ethiopia: Asefa Mengstu ran his best time of 2:04:06 hours three years ago in Dubai (UAE). At the time, that time was only enough for fourth place in the high-caliber race in the desert emirate. In this run, Yebrgual Melese also ran her personal best in 2018. She was third with 2:19:36 hours and is one of three runners who starts in Boston and has already run under 2:20 hours.

Lelisa Desisa jagt Hattrick

For the anniversary, the organizers of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) have eight runners in the elite field who have already won the Boston Marathon. For women, these are the American Desiree Linden (2018), the Ethiopian Atsede Baysa (2016) and the Kenyans Caroline Rotich (2015) and Edna Kiplagat (2017). Among the men, the Ethiopian Lemi Berhanu is the second fastest runner in the field with his best time of 2:04:33 hours. He won the race in 2016.

The Kenyan Geoffrey Kirui (2017), the Japanese Yuki Kawauchi (2018) and the two-time winner Lelisa Desisa (2013 and 2015) are the other Boston winners starting on Monday. The Ethiopian Desisa was also narrowly beaten second in 2019. “I’m still chasing the third victory,” said Lelisa Desisa, who is running the Boston Marathon for the seventh time and has a best time of 2:04:45 hours.

However, there will certainly not be any new official bests or records for runners in Boston: The course, with a point-to-point route and a total of 140 meters gradient, is not record-compliant according to World Athletics regulations.

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