Kenyans Edna Kiplagat, Geoffrey Kirui win Boston Marathon, but Americans fare well
Two runners making their Boston Marathon debuts claimed the titles on Monday, with 37-year old mother of five Edna Kiplagat and 24-year old Geoffrey Kirui, both from Kenya, winning women’s and men’s open races, respectively.
While it was a perfect day for spectators – it’s in the low 70s, sunny and breezy in greater Boston – it was a warm day for marathoning.
Kiplagat, who is a policewoman in her native country when she isn’t training, is no stranger to marathon success: she was the gold medalist at this distance at the IAAF world championships in 2011 and 2013, and has also won the Los Angeles (2010) and London (2014) Marathons.
Her official time of 2:21:52 is the fourth-fastest in course history.
Kirui, who is the first Kenyan man to win Boston in five years, is a relative newcomer to marathoning; via his official bio on IAAF.org, it looks like this is only his second marathon ever. His official time was 2:09:37.
While it was certainly a banner day for Kenya, it was a very good day for the U.S.A. too, with six American men finishing in the top 10.
Oregonian Galen Rupp followed up his bronze medal at the Rio Olympics last summer with a runner-up finish to Kirui with a time of 2:09:58; Shadrack Biwott, a Kenyan-born American, was fourth (2:12:08), Somali-American Abdi Abdirahman was sixth (2:12:45), Army veteran Augustus Maiyo was seventh (2:13:16), another Oregon native, Luke Puskedra, was ninth (2:14:45) and Utah native Jared Ward was 10th (2:15:28).
American women finished third and fourth. Jordan Hasay, a 25-year old Californian who trains with Rupp, made her marathon debut and finished in 2:23:00, the fastest first marathon ever for an American woman.
In a post-race interview with WBZ-TV, Hasay got emotional as she spoke of her mother, who died unexpectedly just a few months ago at age 56. It was Teresa Hasay who had introduced Jordan to running.
The fourth-place finisher was Desiree Linden (2:25:06), who lives and trains in Rochester Hills, Mich. Linden was also fourth in Boston in 2015.
In the women’s wheelchair division, Swiss athlete Manuela Schar set a world record, crossing the line in 1:28.17. It was her first win in Boston, ending a four-year run of dominance by American Tatyana McFadden.
Schar’s countryman, Marcel Hug, claimed his third-straight Boston title in men’s wheelchair, this time in a course record of 1:18:03.
