Flanagan gets her fourth sub-three of the current World Marathon Major-season

Kenyan elite runners took top honours in the men’s and women’s race at the 125th edition of the Boston Marathon held on October 11, 2021.

Thirty-year-old Benson Kipruto of Kenya won the men’s race in two hours, nine minutes and 51 seconds. Diana Kipyogei also of Kenya, won the women’s race in her first appearance in a World Marathon Major event. She crossed the finish line in 2:24:45.

In the men’s race, Lemi Berhanu of Ethiopia came in second with timing of 2:10:37. Jemal Yimer, also of Ethiopia, finished third in 2:10:38.

Podium finish in the women’s race was a Kenyan sweep with Edna Kiplagat finishing second in 2:25:09 and Mary Ngugi placing third in 2:25:20.

India’s elite marathoner Nitendra Singh Rawat finished the race in 2:22:01 securing 31st position overall as well as in the men’s segment.

This year, the six World Marathon Major events are jammed into a six-week window. American runner Shalane Flanagan, on a quest to run all the six road races in sub three-hour timing, finished the Boston Marathon in 2:40:34, a day after she completed the marathon in Chicago in 2:46:39.

It has been sub-three so far for the 40-year-old Flanagan. Starting September 26, 2021, she completed the Berlin Marathon in 2:38:32 and seven days later, the London Marathon in 2:35:04 followed by Chicago and Boston.

According to a report in the New York Times (dated October 9, 2021), Flanagan who recovered from two major knee reconstructions in 2019 and has hamstring tendons from cadavers, plans to do the virtual version of the Tokyo Marathon.

Her last World Marathon Major of this crammed season will be the New York City Marathon scheduled for November 7; Flanagan had won its women’s category in 2017 (2:26:53), the first American woman to win the event since 1977.

(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.)