Kipchoge did not win the race

The victory went to Evans Chebet and Hellen Obiri, who took revenge on the New York Marathon

The world (or almost everyone) stopped to see the Kenyan’s debut Eliud Kipchoge at the Boston Marathon. The expectation on the Kenyan was huge. Would the living legend of athletics overcome his first marathon with ups and downs with the same aplomb that he won 15 of the 17 races he has already competed in? But since Kipchoge is made of flesh and blood, just like you and me, he is also subject to gloomy days (that’s what the weather was like in Boston, with light rain and a temperature of 10º Celsius). The day star saw his countryman Evans Chebet repeat last year’s feat and become the race’s sixth champion in 126 years and the first in the last 15 years. The last one was also Kenyan Robert Cheruiyotin 2008.

It was normal for attention to be focused on Eliud, but Chebet’s victory is not surprising given the career he has had. The 34-year-old Kenyan has won six of the last seven marathons he has run in the last four years. His first victory in the 42 km was here in our “backyard”. In 2019, he won the Buenos Aires Marathon, with 2:05:00. Next came Lake Biwa, in Japan, with 2:07:29; and Valencia, with 2:03:00, the eighth best mark in history, both in 2020. In 2021, he was fourth in London, with 2:05:43. In 2022, Chebet won for the first time in Boston, with 2:06:51 and in New York, with 2:08:41.

HOW WAS THE TEST? As always, Kipchoge ran the show from the start. The Kenyan was so sure of victory that a cameraman was assigned to accompany him throughout the race. Another motorcycle kept an eye on the peloton and, from Km 30 onwards, in the hills of Newton, the cameraman who would have been the supporting actor, became the protagonist. From his lenses came the images that brought up many “Oh!”, after the shot of the trio formed by Chebet, the Kenyan Benson Kipruto (his training partner) and the Tanzanian Gabriel Geay. They took turns until, in the final kilometer, Chebet forced the pace and crossed the mythical finish line on Boylston Street with 2:05:54. Geay finished second with 2:06:04 with Kipruto third with 2:06:06.

And how was Eliud? He finished in sixth place, with 2:09:23. The last time he didn’t go to the top of the podium was at the 2020 London Marathon, when he was eighth, with 2:06:49, with weather conditions similar to those in Boston today, only in the midst of the pandemic. Berlin in 2013, his second career marathon, was the first he did not win, finishing second in 2:04:05. On the occasion, the winner, the also Kenyan Wilson Kipsang, broke the world record for the distance.

While not guaranteed a $150,000 victory prize plus a participation bonus, Kipchoge added the Boston medal to his Majors collection. Now all that’s missing is New York, which he plans or planned to run this year. Completed the Mandala of the Majors, the athlete will focus on the third Olympic championship in Paris.

WOMEN. The women’s race was more disputed than the men’s. Until the final kilometer, five athletes disputed the leadership. Kenya won Helen Obiri, in his second race of 42 km, with 2h21m38s. In a way, Obiri, whose coach is the American Dathan Ritzenheim and trains in the US took revenge on her debut at the New York Marathon last year, where she finished sixth. In second place was Ethiopian Amane Berisowith 2h21m50s, followed by the Israeli Lonah Salpeter, with 2:21:57. The Kenyan is a two-time Olympic silver medalist in the 5,000 meters, in Rio-2016 and Tokyo-2020. The interesting detail is that Obiri is the first athlete to win a major marathon wearing an On Running carbon plate shoe.

STILL ABOUT HIM. Many are questioning whether Kipchoge’s age played a role in today’s race. He was a world record holder at age 37 and didn’t have a good day in Boston.

“I live for the moments when I can push boundaries. It’s never guaranteed, it’s never easy. Today was a difficult day for me. I tried as hard as I could, but sometimes, you have to accept that today wasn’t the day to raise the bar to a greater height,” he wrote on his Instagram profile.

If Pelé, the greatest athlete of the century, didn’t win a Cup, the 1966 one in England, it’s not the end of the world because Kipchoge lost Boston. He still has many kilometers to go and many slats to jump.