Sisay Lemma wins Boston Marathon in runaway, Hellen Obiri repeats in women's pro race
Canada's Tristan Woodfine, competing for Paris Olympic spot, exits race at 30 km
Sisay Lemma scorched the first half of the Boston Marathon course on Monday, setting a record pace to build a lead of more than half of a mile.
Then the weather heated up, and the 34-year-old Ethiopian slowed down.
After running alone for most of the morning, Lemma held on down Boylston Street to finish in two hours six minutes 17 seconds — the 10th fastest time in the race's 128-year history. Hellen Obiri defended her title, becoming the first woman to win back-to-back Boston Marathons since 2005.
"I decided that I wanted to start fast early," said Lemma, who dropped to the pavement and rolled onto his back, smiling, after crossing the finish line. "I kept the pace and I won."
Lemma, the 2021 London champion, arrived in Boston with the fastest time in the field — just the fourth person ever to break 2:02:00 when he won in Valencia last year. And he showed it on the course Monday, separating himself from the pack in Ashland and opening a lead of more than half of a mile.
WATCH | Lemma posts 10th fastest time in Boston Marathon's 128-year history:
Lemma ran the first half in 1:00:19 — 99 seconds faster than Geoffrey Mutai's course record pace in 2011, when he finished in 2:03:02 — the fastest marathon in history to that point. Fellow Ethiopian Mohamed Esa closed the gap through the last few miles, finishing second by 41 seconds; two-time defending champion Evans Chebet was third.
On a day when sunshine and temperatures reaching 15 C left the runners reaching for water — to drink, and to dump over their heads — Obiri ran with an unusually large lead pack of 15 through Brookline before breaking away. Lokedi was second and two-time Boston winner Edna Kiplagat was third.
Obiri also won New York last year, and is one of the favourites heading into the Paris Olympics. She said she told herself: "I'm not giving up. I'm not going to let this one go."
WATCH | Obiri rare repeat women's champion in Boston:
Michelle Krezonoski of Thunder Bay, Ont., was the first elite Canadian women's runner to reach the finish, clocking 2:38:23 for 23rd.
Anne-Marie Comeau of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., didn't start what would have been her fourth marathon and first World Major.
Last October, she placed second among Canadian women at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, posting a time of 2:34.51 for a six-second personal best.
Woodfine's pace tailed off after 25 km
Meanwhile, the quick early pace set by Lemma was tough on Tristan Woodfine of Cobden, Ont. (near Ottawa). He was looking to directly qualify for the Paris Olympics this summer and needed a top-five finish, per the International Olympic Committee/World Athletics qualification system.
Running under the 2:08:10 Paris entry standard didn't matter to Woodfine on Monday since the Boston course is ineligible for Olympic qualification as it's a net downhill course.
But it didn't matter as his pace tailed off between 25 and 30 kilometres and he stepped off the course at 30 km for an unspecified reason in his final try to make the Canadian Olympic team, with the qualifying window closing May 5.
Through 10 km, the 30-year-old was on pace for a 2:09 finish — which would have placed him seventh — and he clocked 1:06:01 halfway through the 42.2 km race.
Woodfine ran a 2:10:39 PB for sixth place this past Jan. 14 in Houston and was also sixth (1:03:50) in a deep field at the hilly New York City Half Marathon on March 17.
Toronto's Tyler Hamilton was the fastest Canadian in the men's race, finishing 39th in 2:24:08. Thomas Toth, who grew up in Lakefield, Ont. (near Peterborough) and now lives in New England, followed in 43rd (2:24:34).
Hug breezes to men's record in wheelchair race
Switzerland's Marcel Hug righted himself after crashing into a barrier when he took a turn too fast and still coasted to a course record in the men's wheelchair race. It was his seventh Boston win and his 14th straight major marathon victory.
Hug already had a four-minute lead about 29 km in when reached the landmark firehouse turn in Newton, where the course heads onto Commonwealth Avenue on its way to Heartbreak Hill. He spilled into the fence, flipping sideways onto his left wheel, but quickly restored himself.
"It was my fault," Hug said. "I had too much weight, too much pressure from above to my steering, so I couldn't steer."
Hug finished in 1:15:33, winning by 5:04 and breaking his previous course record by 1:33. Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper, 22, won the women's wheelchair race in 1:35:11 for her first major marathon victory; she is the third-youngest woman to win the Boston wheelchair race.
Josh Cassidy of Port Elgin, Ont., was racing in his 14th Boston Marathon and finished fifth in 1:26:15.
"I was a little bit nervous for the first time in a long time because I did not want to have a bad race," he said in a video post to Instagram. "It was a rough start to the marathon season [in March] in Tokyo and L.A. [Los Angeles].
"Still a gap to get closer to the top but proud of the progress in just a couple of weeks."
'Last 5K was pretty much a sprint'
Cassidy noted he pushed from 20th place to fourth in about 10 seconds, reaching 65 km/h on the first big downhill.
"You want to get a good speed quickly so I was happy with my start," Cassidy said. "I went up to fourth and back to eighth or ninth, and the last 5K was pretty much a sprint."
At 15K, Cassidy said the rubber on his glove came off so he had to be careful how he was pushing on the wheelchair.
A year ago, the 39-year-old battled pouring rain in the second half of the race on the way to 19th (1:47:02).
A three-time Paralympian, Cassidy won the 2012 event in a then-world record 1:18:25.
The otherwise sleepy New England town of Hopkinton celebrated its 100th anniversary as the starting line for the Boston Marathon, sending off a field of 17 former champions and nearly 30,000 other runners on its way. Near the finish on Boylston Street 42.2 km away, officials observed the anniversary of the 2013 bombing that killed three and wounded hundreds more.
With files from CBC Sports
