Kyle Hightower, The Associated Press
BOSTON — Peres Jepchirchir celebrated the 50th anniversary of the women’s Boston Marathon event by winning an undecided sprint down Boylston Street as the event returned to its traditional Patriots’ Day date for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Running side by side for most of the course, reigning Olympic champion and Ethiopian Ababel Yeshaneh swapped places eight times in the final kilometer, with Jepchirchir taking the lead for good in the final 385 metres. The Kenyan finished in two hours, 21 minutes and one second, four seconds ahead.
British Columbia’s Malindi Elmore, the Canadian record holder in the women’s marathon, finished 11th. The 42-year-old athlete’s time of 2:27:58 is below the qualification standard for the world championships.
Kenyan Evans Chebet for his part distanced himself with regarding 6.4 km to go to win the men’s race in 2h06:51, 30 seconds ahead of Tanzanian Gabriel Geay. Defending champion Benson Kipruto finished third.
Trevor Hofbauer was the top Canadian, finishing 15th in 2:10:52. The 30-year-old from Calgary has dropped below the Worlds entry mark.
American Daniel Romanchuk won his second career title in the wheelchair event, triumphing in 1:26:58. Switzerland’s Manuela Schar (1h41:08) earned her second straight women’s win and fourth in her career
Romanchuk, 23, led the race for 36.8 of the 42 km, finishing ahead of a field that did not include defending champion and five-time event winner Marcel Hug, who withdrew a few hours before the race for unspecified reasons.
American Aaron Pike finished second in 1h32:49, followed by Briton Johnboy Smith (1h32:55).
Romanchuck had previously won the race in Boston in 2019 when he became the first American since 1993 to win the title. He was third in the New York Marathon in November and second in the first fall edition of the Boston event last year.
Sharing the spotlight with the Red Sox’s home opener weekend — the city’s other spring sporting tradition — more than 28,000 runners took to the streets of Hopkinton in Copley Square six months following a smaller, distancing event for the presentation of the only race in autumn in 126 of history.
Fans waved Ukrainian flags in support of the few dozen participants whose 42 km run was the easiest part of their journey. Russian and Belarusian athletes have been told to stay home in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainians who were unable to travel to Boston were offered a postponement or refund.
The 125th race was first postponed and then canceled due to the pandemic — the first cancellation since the event began in 1897. In 2021, it was postponed until October.
