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Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri will be out to defend their titles at the Boston Marathon on Monday but just how dominant have Kenyans been at the race?
Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri will be out to defend their titles when the Boston Marathon takes place on Monday April 15.
Boston Marathon remains the oldest marathons in the US and the second oldest in the world, after Osaka-Lake Biwa Marathon, with the 2024 race being its 128th edition.
The men’s race was previously a preserve of Americans, who won it 45 times from 1897 to 1988, with Canadians, Europeans and Asians claiming the other titles until Africans took over.
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16:36 - 14.04.2024
Boston Marathon: The exclusive club of three-time winners Evans Chebet is seeking to join
Kenya's Evans Chebet is aiming to join elite runners who won the Boston Marathon three times consecutively.
The first African man to win it was Kenya’s Ibrahim Hussein, who clocked 2:08:43 in 1988, and it seems to have opened the door for his country to dominate the race.
Since then, 25 of the 35 titles have gone to Kenya men, including 10 straight from 1992-2000, while runners from the East African nation have also won five of the last six, among them titles from 2019 to 2023.
If Chebet therefore defends his title, he would be extending what is turning into a tradition at Boston.
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07:54 - 14.04.2024
Boston Marathon: Evans Chebet aiming for three-peat as in-form Hellen Obiri chases history
Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri have plans to make history as they gear up for a tough outing at the Boston Marathon.
The story is the same in the women’s race whose first edition was run much later in 1966 as Americans claimed the first nine crowns followed by six more from 1975-1985. There were winners from Canada, Germany, Norway, Portugal, New Zealand and Russia until 1997 when Africans took over.
That was Ethiopian Fatuma Roba, who won three straight from 1997-1999, before Kenyan legend Catherine ‘The Great’ Ndereba won two of her four Boston crowns back-to-back in 2000 and 2001, handing the mantle to compatriot Margaret Okayo, with Russian Svetlana Zakharova winning it 2003, after which Ndereba won again in 2004 and 2005.
Since then, Kenyan women have won 10 of the last 17, including the last three. Over that period, Two Kenyan women have won it twice, being Edna Kiplagat (2017 and 2021) and Rita Jeptoo (2006 and 2013), although she was stripped off her second title due to a doping offence, and Obiri can join this club if she defends her title.
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22:00 - 13.04.2024
Sharon Lokedi reveals the ‘super shoes’ she is counting on to deliver Boston Marathon victory
Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi has revealed the special shoes she will be wearing during Monday’s Boston Marathon which she hopes to use to silence Hellen Obiri and co.
Meanwhile, in the men’s side, Kenyans have stamped their authority with Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot winning it four times (2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008), Cosmas Ndeti managing three (1993-1995), same as Hussein (1988, 1991 and 1992), with Chebet seeking to join this club if he can win the 2024 edition to add onto his 2022 and 2023 titles.
The other two-time winner at Boston from Kenya is Moses Tanui who won it in 1996 and 1998.
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