Top African marathoners set to shine in Boston on Marathon Monday

It’s not the fastest, it’s not the biggest, its not even considered eligible for records and best times. But the Boston Marathon, in many people’s eyes, and in the words of Tina Turner, is simply the best and better than all the rest.

This Monday is Marathon Monday in Boston and 30 000 runners will be lining up at the start in Hopkington for their traditional run into Boston. And they’ve been doing it for well over a hundred years, the first Boston having been held in 1897 on the back of the first edition of the modern Olympics a year earlier.

The course was designed to replicate the original marathon in Greece, a hilly point-to-point race, and as such has not been the venue for many world records nor has it been accepted as a legitimate route for record purposes, being listed as ‘aided’ by statisticians.

One of the six Abbott’s Marathon Majors, the Boston is the only one with serious history, predating the social jogging boom, and is inevitably rich with heritage and tradition.

The Boston Marathon has grown its own race heroes – Clarence DeMar won the men’s race seven times, more than any other, achieving his legacy between 1911 and 1930.  Local hero, ‘Boston Billy’ Rodgers won four times between 1975 and 1980, during which time he also won four New York City Marathons.

The Boston Marathon became the first major marathon to include a wheelchair division, in 1975, with South African Ernst van Dyk‘s ten wins in the men’s wheelchair division the most of any athlete at Boston.

Not unlike other Marathon Majors, African athletes have been dominant at the Boston Marathon for the past three decades

Three-times winner Ibrahim Hussein of Kenya was the first athlete from Africa to win Boston, first winning in 2:08:43 in 1988, while the first woman athlete from Africa to win was another treble winner, Ethiopian Fatima Roba, winning her first of her successive victories in 2:26:23 in 1997.

Since 1988, only four athletes from other continents have won the men’s competition. Italian Gelindo Bordin in 1990, South Korean Lee Bong-Ju in 2001, American Meb Keflezighi in 2014 and Japan’s colourful Yuki Kawauchi in the snow-swept race of 2018.

And Russian Svetlana Zakharova in 2003 and American Desiree Linden in 2018 were the only women from outside Africa to have won since 1997.

Since Australian Robert ‘Deek’ de Castella set a Boston course record of 2:07:51 in 1986, four Kenyan athletes have set new marks – three times champion, Cosmas Ndeti with a 2:07:15 in 1994, five times winner Robert Kipkoech in 2006 (2:07:14) and again in 2010 (2:05:52) before finally Geoffrey Mutai took the record to an unthinkable 2:03:02 in 2011.

No one has come close since Mutai’s magic, with Evans Chebet’s double win in the past two years in 2:06:51 and 2:05:54 last year racing to the fastest times at Boston in the past decade.

Eliud Kipchoge, the world’s greatest marathon athlete, has a less-than-fond memory of the race. In 2023 for just the third time in his illustrious career, Eliud Kipchoge did not win a marathon that he was competing in. Kipchoge suffered a leg injury on the notorious Heartbreak Hill in 2023 before finishing sixth, his worst performance since 2009.

Evans Chebet – aiming for three in a row. Photo – New York Road Runners

35-year-old Kenyan, Evans Chebet, successively defended his title last year and goes for his third win in succession on Monday.  Chebet is part of an exclusive list of marathoners who have won both the New York City and Boston Marathons and having been omitted from his country’s Olympic Marathon squad, another New York win later this year is on the cards.

Chebet is confident of delivering once again, on Monday and he still regards the 2018 debacle as unfinished business.

“Evans never drops out of a race,” said his coach of ten years, Claudio Beradelli. “And he has never been out of the top four in any race he has run. So when he was forced out of the 2018 race it was hard for him.”

2018 was the year of the freak storm and sub-zero temperatures which saw most of the African runners drop out and the race won by non-Africans for the first time in many years, with Japan’s Yuki Kawauchi and America’s Desiree Linden winning.

Evans Chebet – repaying his dues

Nonetheless, Evans still feels he is repaying his dues, something that has kept his focus on the Boston and New York Marathons. When I run in Kenya, there are always many hills, so I’m running uphill and then downhill all the time,” said Chebet. “So I think the hills at Boston are an advantage to me as I can race them well.”

An achilles injury to Chebet has curtailed his training in the past year and likely was a reason for his exclusion from the Kenyan team to race in the Paris Olympics.

“When they asked him about his fitness, he was unsure and so they went with other athletes,” said coach Berardelli.  “But perhaps if he wins well on Monday and there is a problem with one of the selected athletes, they may still call on him for Paris. If they do, he’ll be more than eager, but if not, we will likely target New York again.”

With the Cape Town Marathon in line to be accepted as the world’s 7^th Marathon Major, might Chebet extend his Marathon Major schedule to include a race on his own continent? 

“I will surely come to Cape Town to race it. I look forward to that,” said Chebet.

Last year’s runner-up, Tanzanian Gabriel Geay, could again prove Chebet’s strongest opposition.  His marathon best of 2:03:00 set in Valencia in December 2022 is identical to that of Chebet and is the fastest by any athlete other than those born in Kenya or Ethiopia.  

And he is confident for Monday’s race. “I’ll try my best to be strong mentally and to adopt the best tactics in the race.  Whether I win all depends on how strong I am and my tactics.  I think I could have won last year but I’ve learnt from that and I’m still confident I can do it on Monday.”

The Arusha-based athlete, near the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, enjoys championship racing, having placed a creditable 7^th at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in the USA in 2022 and is aiming for a considerable improvement at the Paris Olympics, for which he has already been chosen.

“I’m aiming for a medal in Paris,” said Geay. “That will be a first for my country in the marathon.”

For Geay, winning is important, not just for him personally, but my broadly, for his country. “My performances inspire young men and women in Tanzania,” Geay confirmed. “I have a club in my name – the Gabriel Geay Club, where a group of boys train under me. They will be hoping that I win Boston on Monday – it would be a big boost to their running confidence.”

Ethiopian Sisay Lemma has the fastest marathon time to his name of any in the field, having run 2:01:48 in Valencia five months ago.

Strong Kenyan distance athlete Helen Obiri will start favourite in the women’s race, but she will have to overcome the challenges of faster athletes in the field, including Ethiopians Tadu Teshome Naru, who excelled on the South African SPAR Challenge circuit in 2022, and Hiwot Gebremaryam, both of whom have run sub-2 hr 18 min marathons at Valencia in Spain.

South African Dominique Scott will be looking to challenge for a top ten position and an improved best time.