The 129th version of the Boston Marathon guarantees to be one of the vital thrilling in current reminiscence
Defending champions Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma return to this yr’s Boston Marathon however victory shall be no means assured given there are each sturdy worldwide and home fields.
Calli Hauger-Thackery, who’s second on the UK all-time marathon checklist with 2:21:24, will purpose to finish her fourth ever race over 26.2 miles.
The wheelchair fields, as all the time, boast a myriad of expertise and this yr are led by Susannah Scaroni and Marcel Hug.
Athletes start on Important Avenue in Hopkinton, a begin that’s principally downhill, earlier than tackling the infamous hills in Newton. The end is on Boylston Avenue close to Copley Sq..
These are simply 5 issues to be careful for on the 129th version of the Boston Marathon:
Hellen Obiri (Getty)
A hat-trick for Hellen?
Not since Fatima Roba, between 1997 and 1999, has a lady gained the Boston Marathon 3 times in a row, however it’s that feat which Hellen Obiri shall be trying to match on April 21. Simply 4 girls have gained three consecutive Boston Marathon Open Division titles – Bobbi Gibb, Sara Mae Berman, Uta Pippig and Roba.
After making her debut over 26.2 miles in 2022 with sixth place in New York, the previous 5000m world champion gained Boston on the first try and has dominated the roost since.
She was victorious once more final yr, earlier than ending third within the OIympic marathon and coming second in New York – an occasion she additionally gained in 2023.
Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso and Yalemzerf Yehualaw have the quickest PBs within the discipline, however Boston’s hilly course makes for tactical battles relatively than all-out tempo. Beriso, the reigning world champion, was second in 2023.
Sisay Lemma (David Hicks)
Did Lemma study his lesson?
Numerous the foremost contenders in Boston final yr are again for extra, with 5 of the highest seven from 2024 on account of toe the beginning line within the males’s race. Sisay Lemma, with a PB of two:01:48 is comfortably the quickest within the discipline and shall be defending his title, however the Ethiopian can even be trying to present that he has realized some worthwhile classes from his expertise of 12 months in the past.
Final April he had appeared nicely set to interrupt the Boston course report of two:03:02, set by Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai in 2011, having shot into an early lead. 5 miles was handed in 23:12, six seconds sooner than anybody ever had at Boston, whereas his 28:28 break up for 10km was 40 seconds sooner than the earlier finest on the course and he hit midway in 60:19 – one other Boston report.
Lemma was nonetheless 48 seconds forward of Mutai’s schedule when he handed the 20-mile mark in 63:48 however the course (and the influence of operating the largely downhill first half so onerous) bit again and at 35km he had fallen off report tempo, finally coming dwelling in 2:06:17.
Two-time Boston winner and final yr’s third placer, Kenya’s Evans Chebet, additionally returns. So too do the 2024 fourth and fifth place finishers John Korir and Albert Korir.
Calli Thackery (Getty)
May Hauger-Thackery pose a risk?
Calli Hauger-Thackery makes her Boston Marathon debut on Monday and goes into the race because the tenth quickest feminine athlete within the discipline. The Brit has a finest of two:21:24, set eventually yr’s Berlin Marathon, and she or he is second to solely Paula Radcliffe on the UK all-time marathon checklist.
This shall be Hauger-Thackery’s third race over 26.2 miles within the US, together with her earlier two performances being 2:11:17 on the 2023 McKirdy Micro Marathon and a pair of:24:28 on the 2024 California Worldwide Marathon.
With the successful time eventually yr’s Boston Marathon being 2:22:37, Hauger-Thackery may pose a risk on the entrance of the race and it will likely be intriguing to see the way it unfolds.
Clayton Younger and Conner Mantz (Getty)
Main the house cost
The Boston Marathon all the time takes place on Patriots’ Day, an American vacation to commemorate the primary battles of the revolutionary battle. There shall be explicit poignancy to that connection this yr, provided that that is the 250th anniversary of these battles.
When it comes to the American contingent within the elite races, 2018 Boston champion Des Linden competes within the occasion for the twelfth time and is a part of the quickest ever US girls’s discipline at Boston, with 14 of these athletes boasting private bests beneath 2:26.
On the boys’s aspect, Conner Mantz and Clayton Younger will lead the house cost, having completed eight and ninth on the Olympic marathon respectively, after which each ending within the high 10 in New York. Mantz additionally just lately broke the US half marathon report with a run of 59:15 in Houston.
Eden Rainbow-Cooper (Getty)
Eyes on the wheelchair prizes
It’s 50 years since Bob Corridor turned the primary wheelchair finisher in Boston historical past and in 2025 the prize pot has been elevated for the elite wheelchair rivals. The champion’s prize has risen from $40,000 to $50,000, whereas there’s additionally an incentive of $50,000 if both course report is damaged.
Marcel Hug and Eden Rainbow-Cooper defend their titles. The Swiss gained Boston for the seventh time final yr in a course report of 1:15:33 that can be a world finest, whereas Rainbow-Cooper created her personal piece of historical past by turning into the primary British lady ever to win the wheelchair race, breaking the tape in 1:35:11.
4-time winner and girls’s course record-holder Manuela Schär of Switzerland can be competing, whereas her fellow Swiss, Catherine Debrunner, makes her Boston debut after a 2024 that included six Paralympic medals (5 gold), together with victory within the marathon. Debrunner can be a champion of the Berlin, London, Chicago, and New York Metropolis Marathons.
Elite girls’s line-up (sub-2:30)
Amane Beriso – 2:14:58 (Valencia, 2022)
Yalemzerf Yehualaw – 2:16:52 (Amsterdam, 2024)
Irine Cheptai – 2:17:51 (Chicago, 2024)
Keira D’Amato – 2:19:12 (Houston, 2022)
Rahma Tusa – 2:19:33 (Houston, 2024)
Edna Kiplagat – 2:19:50 (London, 2012)
Buze Diriba – 2:20:22 (Chicago, 2024)
Mary Ngugi-Cooper – 2:20:22 (London, 2022)
Sara Corridor – 2:20:32 (Chandler, 2020)*
Calli Hauger-Thackery – 2:21:34 (Berlin, 2024)
Hellen Obiri – 2:21:38 (Boston, 2023)
Emma Bates – 2:22:10 (Boston, 2023)
Tsige Haileslase – 2:22:10 (Hamburg, 2023)
Sharon Cherop – 2:22:28 (Berlin, 2013)
Desiree Linden – 2:22:38 (Boston, 2011)
Viola Cheptoo – 2:22:44 (New York Metropolis, 2021)
Sharon Lokedi – 2:22:45 (Boston, 2024)
Sara Vaughn – 2:23:24 (Chicago, 2023)
Stacy Ndiwa – 2:23:42 (Chicago, 2024)
Gabi Rooker – 2:24:29 (Chicago, 2024)
Kellyn Taylor – 2:24:29 (Duluth, 2018)
Dakotah Popehn – 2:24:40 (Chicago, 2023)
Jackie Gaughan – 2:24:40 (Sacramento)
Cynthia Limo – 2:25:10 (Hamburg, 2024)
Lily Partridge – 2:25:12 (Valencia, 2023)
Jess McClain – 2:25:46 (Orlando, 2024)
Tristin Colley – 2:25:58 (Chicago, 2023)
Annie Frisbie – 2:26:18 (New York Metropolis, 2021)
Stephanie Bruce – 2:28:41 (Sacramento, 2024)
Elite males’s line-up (sub-2:12)
Sisay Lemma – 2:01:48 (Valencia, 2023)
John Korir – 2:02:44 (Chicago, 2024)
Evans Chebet – 2:03:00 (Valencia, 2020)
CyBrian Kotut – 2:03:22 (Berlin, 2024)
Haymanot Alew – 2:03:31 (Berlin, 2024)
Daniel Mateiko – 2:04:24 (Valencia, 2024)
Alphonce Felix Simbu – 2:04:38 (Valencia, 2024)
Lelisa Desisa – 2:04:45 (Dubai, 2013)
Victor Kiplangat – 2:05:09 (Hamburg, 2022)
Asefa Boki – 2:05:40 (Amsterdam, 2024)
Tebello Ramakongoana – 2:06:18 (Xiamen, 2025) NR
Abel Kipchumba – 2:06:49 (Berlin, 2022)
Tsegay Weldlibanos – 2:07:35 (Sacramento, 2024)
Patrick Tiernan – 2:07:45 (Houston, 2024)
Conner Mantz – 2:07:47 (Chicago, 2023)
Clayton Younger – 2:08:00 (Chicago, 2023)
Rory Linkletter – 2:08:01 (Seville, 2024)
CJ Albertson – 2:08:17 (Chicago, 2024)
Amanuel Mesel – 2:08:17 (Valencia, 2013)
Yemane Haileselassie – 2:08:25 (Houston, 2025)
Erenjia Jia – 2:08:32 (Berlin, 2024)
Zach Panning – 2:09:16 (Chicago, 2024)
Colin Bennie – 2:09:38 (Chandler, 2020)
Brian Shrader – 2:09:46 (Chicago, 2023)
Reed Fischer – 2:10:14 (Chicago, 2024)
Tesfu Tewelde – 2:10:21 (St. Paul, 2024)
Wesley Kiptoo – 2:10:28 (Chicago, 2023)
Johannes Motschmann – 2:10:39 (London, 2024)
Nathan Martin – 2:10:45 (Duluth, 2023)
Ryan Ford – 2:11:08 (New York Metropolis, 2024)
Colin Mickow – 2:11:22 (Chandler, 2020)
Turner Wiley – 2:11:55 (Chicago, 2024)
Robert Miranda – 2:12:07 (Sacramento, 2024)
Elite girls’s wheelchair division
Susannah Scaroni – 1:27:31 (Grandma’s, 2022)
Manuela Schar – 1:28:17 (Boston, 2017)
Tatyana McFadden – 1:31:30 (Grandma’s 2019)
Catherine Debrunner – 1:34:16 (Berlin, 2023)
Eden Rainbow Cooper – 1:34:17 (Berlin, 2023)
Marie Emmanuelle Noemi Alphonse – 1:35:14 (Grandma’s 2022)
Christie Dawes – 1:37:12 (Boston, 2017)
Madison De Rozario – 1:38:11 (Tokyo, 2021)
Patricia Eachus – 1:40:22 (Boston, 2024)
Aline Dos Santos Rocha – 1:41:39 (Berlin, 2021)
Vanessa Cristina de Souza – 1:43:22 (Boston, 2024)
Michelle Wheeler – 1:45:45 (Oita, 2019)
Yen Hoang – 1:47:29 (London, 2022)
Hoda Elshorbagy – 1:47:32 (Boston, 2024)
Eva Houston – 1:59:49 (Grandma’s 2022)
Hannah Dederick – 2:02:23 (Chicago, 2022)
Chelsea Stein – 2:19:33 (Honolulu, 2023)
Elite males’s wheelchair division
Marcel Hug – 1:15:33 (Boston, 2024)
Johnboy Smith – 1:20:05 (Grandma’s 2022)
Daniel Romanchuk – 1:20:37 (Boston, 2024)
Kota Hokinoue – 1:22:01 (Oensingen, 2011)
Rafael Botello Jimenez – 1:22:09 (Boston, 2017)
Patrick Monahan – 1:22:23 (Grandma’s 2019)
Sho Watanabe – 1:24:00 (Oita, 2019)
Hermin Garic – 1:24:18 (Grandma’s 2022)
Jeyna Senbeta – 1:24:27 (Boston, 2017)
Jetze Plat – 1:24:28 (Dubai, 2023)
Simon Lawson – 1:25:06 (Boston, 2017)
Brian Siemann – 1:26:46 (Boston, 2017)
Evan Correll – 1:27:19 (Grandma’s 2022)
Jason Robinson – 1:29:01 (Grandma’s 2022)
Jake Lappin – 1:29:25 (Boston, 2024)
Phillip Croft – 1:30:14 (Grandma’s 2022)
Geert Schipper – 1:30:33 (Berlin, 2024)
Wyatt Willand – 1:31:16 (Boston, 2024)
Sean Body – 1:31:18 (Berlin 2023)
Dustin Stallberg – 1:36:13 (Boston, 2024)
Aidan Gravelle – 1:42:28 (Grandma’s 2024)
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