HOPKINTON-TO-BOSTON, April 17 — Eliud Kipchoge’s much anticipated quest to add Boston to his bucket list of World Marathon Major wins came a cropper in the 31st kilometer when Tanzanian Gabriel Geay attacked the third of the four Newton Hills.
The hard surge dispatched Kipchoge, but Kenyan teammates Evans Chebet and Benson Kipruto — training partners and winners of the past two Patriots’ Day races — rallied to catch Geay. The three waged a stirring battle over the final 5K with the 34-year-old Chebet able to pull clear to defend his title in 2:05:54.
Chebet, the winner of 6 of his past 7 marathons, reveled, “I’m happy because I know this race, I won it last year and now this year. Coach [Claudio Berardelli] told me to go out with Benson. As teammates we train together, so it was a mutual agreement that we would keep pace together and this worked out well.”
Geay (2:06:04) finished 2nd, edging ahead of Kipruto (2:06:06) in the final 200m, and Kipchoge — in his first effort outside the winner’s circle since London ’20 when he finished 8th — came home 6th in 2:09:23.
After the race Kipchoge released a statement admitting, “Today was a tough day for me. I pushed myself as hard as I could, but sometimes we must accept that today wasn’t the day to push the barrier to a new height.”
Scott Fauble repeated as the top American, again finishing 7th (2:09:44), with local hero Matt McDonald 10th (2:10:17). Conner Mantz spent much of the race in the lead group, but struggled mightily over the final mile to finish 11th in 2:10:25. Afterwards former BYU standout Mantz reported nearly blacking out, his field of vision shrinking in the last 2M.
A light rain had begun to fall as the runners took their place on the starting line, yet it did little to deter Kipchoge, who hit the front right from the gun. Throwing caution aside, the WR holder led a downhill romp through the opening 5K in 14:17.
As the rain eased, the hot pace continued and a pack of 12 crossed 10K in 28:52 (14:35 split) with Mantz and CJ Albertson still in the lead group.
The tempo slowed as the rain resumed and the runners coped with 50-degree (10C) temperatures, and a slight 2–4mph (c1–2mps) headwind. A pair of 15:05 segments followed as the lead group pressed on through steady rain to cross halfway in 62:19.
With their ever-squeaky…
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