Past multiple winners, Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and Evans Chebet, seek to make history at the 129th Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon, the world’s longest existing marathon, has consistently produced great marathon icons for many years. Monday, the 21^st of April, will be another day that the defending champions from last year, Sisay Lemma and Hellen Obiri, will seek to have their names etched in history books as multiple winners. Past winners, including Ednah Kiplagat and Evans Chebet, will also aim to add to their victories in this historic marathon.

Bill Rodgers of the United States is one of the great runners who dominated the Boston Marathon in 1975, 1978, 1979, and 1980. But that was before the Kenyans began to feature.

Ibrahim Hussein was the first Kenyan to win the Boston Marathon in 1988, 1991, and 1992, before another Kenyan, Cosmas Ndeti, won consecutively from 1993 to 1995. Moses Tanui won in 1996 and 98.

The most successful Kenyan, so far, in the marathon is Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot, also known as “Mwafrika”, who has won it four times. He won it in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Kenya’s Geoffrey Mutai still holds the course record of 2:03:02, which he ran in 2011.

On Patriots Day, on the streets of Boston, all eyes will be on Kenya’s Chebet, the winner of 2022 and 2023, as he hopes to add a third title and add his name to the most outstanding Kenyan runners in the history of the Boston Marathon. Despite suffering an injury last year, Chebet managed to finish in third place on the podium.

Two Kenyan women are chasing third titles at the Boston Marathon on Monday. Ednah Kiplagat won in 2017 and in 2021. But with twenty years of competitive marathon running since she ran at the Las Vegas Marathon in 2005, it is only expected that a superstar cannot remain in their marathon peak for that long. However, she remains a huge inspiration to many, as she continues to compete against talents much younger than her in the major marathon races.

Hellen Obiri, the defending champion with titles in 2023 and 2024, is seen as the favourite to achieve the three-peat.

However, both the men’s and women’s races are loaded with some of the world’s best marathon…