Defending champion John Korir has shattered the Boston Marathon course record, riding a tailwind to outrun the strongest field in race history and win in two hours, one minute, 52 seconds — the fifth-fastest marathon of all time.
Sharon Lokedi joined her fellow Kenyan as a back-to-back champion, winning the women’s race in 2:18:51.
A year after joining his brother Wesley, the 2012 champion, as the only relatives to win the race, John Korir broke away from the pack as it headed into Heartbreak Hill in Newton and opened a 40-second lead.
He beat the previous course record of 2:03:02 set by Geoffrey Mutai in 2011 by 70 seconds.
“I knew I would defend my title, but I didn’t know I’d run that fast,” Korir said.
Compatriot Kelvin Kiptum holds the marathon world record, with a 2:00:35 on the flatter Chicago course in 2023.
Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania, 55 seconds back, and Kenyan 2021 champion Benson Kipruto, another three seconds behind him, also were fast enough to better the previous Boston record.
Lokedi, who broke the women’s course record last year by more than two minutes, took the lead entering the Newton Hills and emerged from them with an expanding lead.
Kenyan women took the top four spots. Loice Chemnung was second, 44 seconds back, followed by Mary Ngugi-Cooper in third.
Korir and Lokedi each won $US150,000 ($A210,000) and a gilded olive wreath sent from the plains of Marathon, Greece. Korir will receive another $US50,000 ($A70,000) for the course record.
Marcel Hug of Switzerland won his ninth wheelchair title in 1:16:06, a time second only to his 2024 course record. He is one shy of the all-category record of South African wheelchair athlete Ernst van Dyk’s 10 Boston Marathon wins.
Two-time winner Daniel Romanchuk of Champaign, Illinois, was second behind Hug for the fourth straight time.
In the women’s wheelchair race, 2024 winner Eden Rainbow-Cooper of Britain regained her title, finishing in 1:30:51 to beat runner-up Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland by more than two minutes.
The athletes arrived with frost on the ground and temperatures barely above zero. Although it warmed up through the day, it was the coldest starting temperature since 2018.