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Boston Marathon: Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper wins women's wheelchair race

Eden Rainbow-Cooper wins the women's wheelchair race at the 2024 Boston Marathon
Rainbow-Cooper was seventh at last year's London Marathon and third in 2022 [Getty Images]

Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper claimed the biggest win of her career as she won the women's wheelchair race at the Boston Marathon.

The Commonwealth Games marathon silver medallist triumphed in a time of one hour 35 minutes 11 seconds.

She is the first British woman to win the wheelchair race and the first Briton to win any of Boston's elite races since Geoff Smith in 1985.

"I really can't believe this,"said the 22-year-old.

"I was was just focusing on my own race. I had absolutely nothing left at the end, but the crowd carried me through."

Rainbow-Cooper won the women's wheelchair race at the Great North Run in September 2022 and has been improving over the marathon distance, coming second in Berlin last September and in Tokyo in March.

She is set to continue her preparations for this summer's Paralympics in Paris by competing at the London Marathon this Sunday.

Compatriot David Weir was third in the men's wheelchair race, which was won by Switzerland's Marcel Hug for a sixth time, with the USA's Daniel Romanchuk taking second.

Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma won the elite men's race for the first time in 2:06:17 - 41 seconds ahead of compatriot Mohamed Esa

Lemma, 33, hit the front early and led by more than two minutes at the halfway mark, while Esa made a late surge to overtake Kenyan pair John Korir and Evans Chebet and finish a second ahead of two-time defending champion Chebet.

Kenyan Hellen Obiri pulled away in the final mile to claim a second straight women's title in 2:22:37.

The 34-year-old finished eight seconds ahead of compatriot Sharon Lokedi, while veteran Edna Kiplagat was third to complete a Kenyan podium sweep.