| 125. Boston-Marathon
There was a Kenyan double triumph on Monday at the 125th Boston Marathon. While Benson Kipruto won the classic in 2:09:51 hours, his compatriot Diana Chemtai Kipyokei finished in 2:24:45. On the hilly point-to-point route, which is not record-breaking, there were no top times in relatively warm weather with temperatures of almost 20 degrees Celsius. But there were interesting races for victory and the associated high bonuses of 150,000 US dollars each.
In the Boston suburb of Hopkinton, exactly 15,736 runners started on the traditional Monday date of the 125th Boston Marathon. Of them, 15,385 reached the finish in central Boston. Due to the corona pandemic, the field of runners in Boston was also significantly smaller than in previous races.
The men’s race began in the Boston suburb with an unexpected push: American CJ Albertson ran away from the start. Having started the race with a personal best of 2:11:18 hours, he was not one of the winning candidates. The outsider already had a lead of almost a minute following 5 kilometers over the large group of around 30 with the favorites. And on the day of his 28th birthday, Albertson initially extended the lead further without running an extremely fast pace. When he passed the half marathon mark following 64:08 minutes, the chasing group was 2:13 minutes behind.
But from now on, the advantage began to melt. At the 30-kilometer mark it was just 54 seconds, and a few kilometers later, on the notorious “Heartbreak Hill”, Albertson’s “excursion” was over. The leading group passed the American, who finally had to settle for tenth place in 2:11:44 hours. Around five kilometers before the finish, Benson Kipruto was able to break away from the group and gained a significant lead. With 2:09:51 hours, the 30-year-old, who has a best time of 2:05:13 hours and won the marathon in Prague this spring, was the only one to achieve a result of under 2:10 hours.
Edna Kiplagat still fast
“It was a nice feeling today following finishing tenth here a few years ago. Now I’m happy regarding my win,” said Benson Kipruto, who won ahead of Ethiopia’s Lemi Berhanu (2:10:37) and Jemal Yimer (2:10:38). For Kipruto, the victory in Boston was the biggest success of his career so far.
The leading group of 15 women reached the half marathon point at a leisurely pace following 74:11 minutes. By kilometer 30, this group had reduced to seven runners. Soon following, Diana Kipyokei launched the paramount initiative. The Ethiopian Netsanet Gudeta kept up briefly, but following 35 kilometers the Kenyan pulled away. At the 40-kilometer mark, 27-year-old Kipyokei had a 27-second lead over Edna Kiplagat, who had meanwhile moved up to second place. While Kipyokei won with 2:24:45 hours, the already 41-year-old Kiplagat showed that she can still keep up with the front runners even at an advanced age. Like two years ago in Boston, the double marathon world champion (2011 and 2013) finished second in 2:25:09. The Kenyan won the Boston Marathon in 2017.
For Diana Kipyokei, the Boston triumph was the biggest success of her career. A year ago, however, she had already won the Istanbul marathon. In Turkey she also set her current best time of 2:22:06 hours. On her debut over the 42.195 kilometers in 2019 in Ljubljana she finished third in 2:22:07 hours.