BOSTON – In a performance that will echo through the annals of the world’s most storied marathon, Ethiopian runner Sisay Lemma delivered a tour de force on the streets of this historic city, capturing the 128th Boston Marathon in a startling upset over defending champion Evans Chebet. From the very first strides, the 26-year-old Lemma left no doubt as to his daring intentions, shredding the elite field with a blistering early pace that left his vaunted rivals gasping in his wake.
As the brilliant April sun glinted off the Hopkinton start line, over 30,000 participants from across the globe toed the prestigious 26.2 mile journey into Boston with dreams of glory. But it was Lemma who would seize the day in dominant fashion, his brave front-running tactics slicing open the race from the moment the starter’s gun echoed across the Massachusetts countryside.
“I knew I had to take control early,” Lemma said after the race, a wide smile creasing his perspiration-soaked face. “Evans is one of the greatest, and I couldn’t let him dictate things. I had to run my own race out front.”
Lemma’s Blistering Pace Shatters Field
And run his own race he did, storming through the early miles with such searing speed that the world-class chase pack could only gape in stunned disbelief as his bobbing singlet disappeared up the road. By the halfway point of the undulating point-to-point course, Lemma had already established a staggering two-minute lead, a margin that seemed unfathomable given the eternal grind that is the Boston Marathon.
“When I saw the gap he had opened up after just 13 miles, I’ll admit I thought he’d gone out much too hard,” admitted Chebet, the 35-year-old Kenyan whose bid for an unprecedented third straight Boston crown would ultimately come up agonizingly short. “But he just kept pouring it on relentlessly. It was incredible to watch.”
Undaunted by the daunting Newton Hills that have shattered many a dream over the years, Lemma charged straight over their soaring crests, grimacing with every punishing step yet never faltering in his cadence. Behind him, a desperate chase group led by Chebet, Moroccan Mohamed El Aaraby, and France’s Gabriel Geay tried valiantly to reel the Ethiopian back in, but the gaps only continued to yawn.
Chebet’s Thrilling Rally Falls Just Short
“I could feel them coming up behind me those last few miles,” Lemma admitted. “My legs were screaming, my lungs were burning, but I kept telling myself I couldn’t falter after everything I’d given out on that course.”
Displaying the same fabled grit that delivered him Boston Marathon crowns in 2022 and 2023, Chebet summoned one last, soul-searching effort over the closing miles, whittling Lemma’s once-impregnable lead down to just over a minute as the famed Boylston Street finale loomed. But the damage had been done. Stagggering across the finish in 2:07:57, Lemma had completed his mission in historic fashion, becoming the first Ethiopian man to win Boston since Lelisa Desisa’s 2015 triumph.
“I’m overwhelmed,” Lemma gasped afterward, tears streaming down his face as the adoring Boston crowd roared its approval. “To win such a prestigious, legendary race is a dream I can scarcely describe. This is the greatest achievement of my career.”
Obiri Digs Deep to Defend Women’s Crown
While Lemma was authoring an all-time classic in the men’s race, Kenya’s indomitable Hellen Obiri etched her own name into Boston lore with a tenacious defense of her 2023 women’s crown. From the outset, Obiri looked determined to pull away from the elite field, repeatedly surging in a bid to splinter the chase pack.
But she could not shake the relentless pursuit of compatriot Sharon Lokedi, who arose as Obiri’s chief foil over the backend of the serpentine course. Every time Obiri mustered a searing injection of pace, Lokedi responded with a dogged surge of her own, the two African dynamos trading haymakers over Boston’s devilish terrain all the way to the closing stages.
“She just wouldn’t give in, no matter what I threw at her,” Obiri said of Lokedi’s tenacious challenge. “Sharon’s one of the gutsiest competitors out there.”
Ultimately, it was Obiri’s fabled endurance reserves, forged from years of brutal training at altitude, that would decide the outcome. Entering the fabled Boylston Street straight with Lokedi still stubbornly glued to her shoulder, Obiri simply willed herself clear over the dying strides, pulling away to retain her title in 2:22:33.
“I can’t even put this feeling into words,” Obiri gasped afterward, slumped against the barriers as an adoring crowd showered her with cheers. “To get it done again here in Boston against that incredible competition, it’s why we put our bodies through so much as athletes. This feeling, these moments, they make all the suffering worthwhile.”
Rainbow-Cooper Breaks Ground for British Wheelchair Racing
Elsewhere on the hallowed Boston streets, the day took on a historic sheen for British athletics as 28-year-old Eden Rainbow-Cooper powered to a groundbreaking victory in the women’s wheelchair division. Rainbow-Cooper, a rising star on the para circuit, outdueled Swiss legend Manuela Schar in a blistering sprint for the finish, becoming the first athlete from the United Kingdom to ever claim wheelchair glory in Boston.
“I’m absolutely buzzing, I can’t believe it!” an elated Rainbow-Cooper exclaimed at the finish line, tears of joy streaming down her face. “To be the first British woman to pull this off, to show our girls that anything is possible, it means the world to me. This is just a dream becoming reality.”
On the men’s side, Swiss superstar Marcel Hug rekindled his love affair with Boston, smashing his own hallowed course record by over two minutes with a scarcely believable 1:24:38 clocking. Meanwhile, Britain’s ageless warrior David Weir, the six-time Paralympic legend at 43 years young, rolled his way to a gritty third-place showing, underlining his enduring class on the biggest stage.
As a brilliant sunset washed over the Boston skyline, the city’s streets overflowed with thunderous cheers and tearful embraces, an outpouring of raw emotion befitting a race that has captured the world’s imagination like no other. From champions to ordinary citizens alike, the 2024 Boston Marathon had gifted them all with an indelible memory, a spectacle of courage, passion and indomitable human will that will long reverberate through the ages.
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