The 2023 winners return to defend their crowns in the World Marathon Majors event on April 15
Hellen Obiri and Evans Chebet will defend their Boston Marathon titles on April 15.
The two-time world 5000m champion will face two-time Boston champion Edna Kiplagat, 2019 winner Worknesh Degefa and 2018 winner Des Linden.
Obiri made her marathon debut in New York in 2022, clocking 2:25:49. Five months later, she won in Boston in 2:21:38, then triumphed in a tactical race in New York at the end of 2023 in 2:27:23.
Degefa is the fastest in the field with the Ethiopian having won on her marathon debut in Dubai in 2017 before regaining that title in 2020, having also won in Boston in 2019 in between those races. She didn’t compete at all in 2021 or 2022 as she had two children during that time, but she returned to action in 2023 and clocked a PB of 2:15:51 to win in Valencia.
Worknesh Degefa (Getty)
She’ll be joined by fellow Ethiopians Tadu Teshome and Hiwot Gebrekidan, both of whom have set sub-2:18 PBs in Valencia in recent years. Other Ethiopian women in the line-up include 2015 world 5000m silver medallist Senbere Teferi and former world half-marathon record-holder Ababel Yeshaneh, a previous podium finisher in Boston, New York and Chicago.
Kiplagat, the 2017 and 2021 champion, will be making her seventh appearance at the Boston Marathon. The 44-year-old, who has a PB of 2:19:50, finished seventh at the New York Marathon two months ago.
Other leading Kenyans in the field include 2022 world marathon silver medallist Judith Korir, 2022 New York champion Sharon Lokedi, 2015 world silver medallist Helah Kiprop and 2014 world half marathon silver medallist Mary Ngugi-Cooper.
Sharon Lokedi and Evans Chebet (Getty)
Surprise world bronze medallist Fatima Gardadi will be making her first ever appearance in a World Marathon Majors race. Before finishing third in Budapest last year, the Moroccan had won in Marrakech in 2022 and Rabat in 2023. More recently, she set a PB of 2:24:12 to finish second in Xiamen earlier this month.
Linden leads the US contingent, along with Emma Bates, who finished fifth last year.
In the men’s race Chebet will face the man who finished runner-up behind him in Boston in 2023, Gabriel Geay, plus recent Valencia Marathon winner Sisay Lemma.
Chebet has won six of his past seven marathons, including Boston in 2022 and 2023 and the Kenyan’s PB is 2:03:00.
Sisay Lemma (Mark Shearman)
But Lemma won in Valencia in December in 2:01:48, making him the fourth-fastest man in history. The Ethiopian, who also won the 2021 London Marathon, is the fastest man in this year’s Boston Marathon field, which features 20 men with sub-2:10 PBs.
Other men in the field with sub-2:05 PBs are Kenya’s Joshua Belet (2:04:18), Ronald Korir (2:04:22), and Cyprian Kotut (2:04:34), as well as Ethiopians Haftu Teklu (2:04:43) and London and New York City runner-up Shura Kitata (2:04:49).
New York Marathon champion Albert Korir, former Japanese record-holder Suguru Osako and Norwegian record-holder Sondre Moen are also in the field, as are Morocco’s Zouhair Talbi, winner of this month’s Houston Marathon in a course record 2:06:39, and multiple NCAA champion Edward Cheserek.
Britain’s Chris Thompson is also entered.
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