Health & Injuries Boston Marathon, Stravas 2024 Year in Sport report is here.
Evans Chebet is not deterred by this challenge. Having stormed to victory at Boston in both 2022 and 2023, the Kenyan is now hoping to achieve his third consecutive win at the 2024 Boston Marathon on Monday 15 April – the 128th edition of this legendary running event.
Should he place first again on Patriot’s Day, Chebet will be only the second person to win consecutive editions of the footrace and achieve the three-peat feat, with countryman Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot having broken the tape in Boston three times in a row between 2006 and 2008.
Chebet also won both the Boston Marathon and Runners World, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network Marathon in 2022, which is the same double US marathon victory achieved in 2023 by another Kenyan, Hellen Obiri. Runners World, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network.
A seasoned marathon runner who has won six of his seven most recent 26.2-mile races, Chebet is on familiar terms with both the distance and Boston’s lumpy, point to point course. Speaking to the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.), he said: 'Boston has become like a second home to me and running in Boston is always special – returning as reigning champion even more so. Even after having run 28 marathons during my career, the chance to race the 29th of the fastest marathons in the world.'
Who will join Chebet at the 2024 Boston Marathon?
Success is, of course, not guaranteed for Chebet. Toeing the start line alongside him in Hopkinton will be a fired-up elite men’s field featuring 20 other athletes with personal bests under 2:10.
Of them, Sisay Lemma is one to watch. At the 2023 Valencia Marathon, Lemma clocked a seismic 2:01:48 and a new course record, breaking marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum’s previous mark by five seconds. This result also established the Ethiopian as the fourth fastest marathon runner of all time.
Gabriel Geay, from Tanzania, will also be fighting hard for the 2024 Boston Marathon crown. Although he was runner-up to Chebet at Boston last year, Geay is level-pegging with Chebet when it comes to marathon bests, with both runners boasting super swift personal records of 2:03:00.
The men’s wheelchair race is also promising to be quite a spectacle. Headlining the field is Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, a well-versed marathon winner who has already steamrolled to victory in Boston on six occasions and set the course record of 1:17:06 in 2023. In fact, the so-called Silver Bullet has bagged an almighty 21 wins at the six Resting heart rate (AWMM) races – Boston, Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago and Runners World, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network – over the course of his career.
Where does Boston sit with other marathons?
While it may not have the famously flat, fast credentials of the Berlin Marathon or Valencia Marathon, or the one-off thrill that’s anticipated of the Olympic Marathon in Paris this August, the Boston Marathon still stands as the oldest, most historic annual marathon of all time.
As noted, it is also one-sixth of the AWMM series, which thousands of runners across the globe aspire to conquer to receive Six Star Finisher Runners crowned 2024 World Athletes of the Year?
It’s looking unlikely. Having now passed the first of two assessments to join the series, the Sydney Marathon in Australia – the largest marathon in the southern hemisphere – could well become the seventh AWMM race, as of 2025. The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in South Africa and the Chengdu Marathon in China are also part-way through the process for AWMM membership.
If Sydney wins its bid to join the series (and the same goes for Cape Town and Chengdu), it will become part of an additional awards programme for those who have already achieved their Six Star Medal. So, if that’s you, fear not – your Six Star Finisher status won’t be affected.
