Kenyans Kipult, Kipyo Gay Sweep Return at Boston Marathon | Sports – Pennsylvania News Today

Boston — Kenya’s Benson Kipult won the Boston Marathon with a delayed pandemic on Monday. The race returned from a 30-month absence with a smaller, socially distant feel and moved from spring for the first time in 125 years of history.

Organizers applied the COVID-19 protocol to runners and asked spectators to stay away, but the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston was beautiful with early drizzles and low temperatures in the 1960s. Autumn days continued.

They saw Kipult escape from the lead pack when he turned to Beacon Street about three miles to break the tape in 2 hours 9 minutes 51 seconds. Diana Kipyogei won the women’s race to complete her eighth Kenyan sweep since 2000.

Prague and Athens winner Kipult, who finished 10th in Boston in 2019, awaited an early departure from American CJ Albertson, who led two minutes along the way. Kipult led the Cleveland Circle and finished 46 seconds earlier than 2016 winner Remihaile. Albertson, who turned 28 on Monday, was at 1:53 on the 10th.

Kipyogay ran most of the race and finished 23 seconds earlier than 2017 winner Edna Kipragat at 2:24:45.

Swiss Marcel Hug won the men’s wheelchair race early on, despite making the wrong term in the final mile, and slightly detoured at 1:08:11, just seven seconds behind the course record. I finished.

Manuela Schär, also from Switzerland, won the women’s wheelchair race at 1:35:21.

Hug, who raced eight times in Boston and won five times, missed the penultimate turn following the lead car instead of turning from Commonwealth Avenue to Hereford Street, 50,000. You have won a dollar course record bonus.

“The car went straight and I chased the car,” said Hug, who finished second at the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, one second behind. “But that’s my fault. I have to go right, but I chased the car.”

With foliage replacing spring daffodils and more masks than the Mylar blanket, the 125th Boston Marathon finally left Hopkinton for the long-awaited long run to Copley Square.

The rolling start and shrinking field was the first time since the event started in 1897, as the organizers tried to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic change that forced the cancellation of last year’s race, so the social distance on the course. Made possible.

“It feels great to go out,” said race director Dave Magirivray. “Everyone is excited. I’m looking forward to a good day.”

A light rain welcomed the participants at Hopkinton Green. There, about 30 Massachusetts soldiers in uniform departed at 6 am. Some completed a 26.2 mile (42.2 km) distance in Chicago a day ago. Departing after 8 am, followed by men’s and women’s specialties.

“We took things for granted before COVID-19. It’s great to be back in the community and we’re looking at things,” he walked with the fourth military group. Captain Greg Davis, 39, of the National Guard, said. “This is a historic race, but today is a historic day.”

Lawrence Cherono of Kenya and Walknesh Degefa of Ethiopia did not return to defend the 2019 title, but 13 past champions and 5 Tokyo Paralympic gold medal winners are in the professional arena I was in Tokyo.

It has been held every year since the Bostonian group returned from the 1896 Athens Olympics and decided to run their own marathon. The race took place during World War and even during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. However, it was initially postponed, canceled last year, and postponed from the spring of 2021.

This is the first time the event has not been held in April as part of Patriot’s Day holiday to commemorate the start of the Revolutionary War. To celebrate Indigenous Day, the race organizers honored the 1936 and 39 winners Ellison “Tarzan” Brown and the three-time runner-up Paticatalano Dillon, a member of the Mi’kmaq tribe.

To control the spread of the coronavirus, runners had to show evidence that they were vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. The organizers also redesigned the start, so more than 18,000 recreational runners didn’t wait in a crowded enclosure for the waves to begin. Instead, you can get off the bus at Hopkinton.

56-year-old Doug Flannery, who lives in Illinois, was waiting for the start of his sixth Boston Marathon. “It gives people the hope that things are starting to return.”

Police were visible throughout the course as authorities vowed to remain vigilant after a bombing that killed three spectators and injured hundreds on Boylston Street near the Back Bay finish line.

The race started about an hour earlier than usual and was less crowded in the first few towns. Wellesley College students were told not to kiss runners as they passed through the school’s iconic “screaming tunnel” near the midpoint.