Boston, MA (Sports Network) - Deriba Merga of Ethiopia and Salina Kosgei of Kenya are back to defend the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, at the running of the 114th Boston Marathon on April 19.
Boston Marathon: Pair Of U.S. Runners Looking To Become First American To Win Men’s Title Since 1983
The Patriots’ Day classic will take runners from the rural town of Hopkinton to the finish in front of the Boston Public Library.
Merga won last year in a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, 42 seconds, just ahead of Kenya’s Daniel Rono (2:09:32). American Ryan Hall of Mammoth Lakes, CA was third, followed by Ethiopian Tekeste Kebede.
Hall will try to become the first American to win the men’s title since Greg Meyer in 1983. He won the marathon at the 2008 United States Olympic Trials and was 10th in the Olympic marathon in Beijing.
Four-time Boston Marathon winner Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot (2003, 2006-08) came in fifth last year, but he withdrew from this year’s race due to a hip injury.
Other elite Americans in the field are Meb Keflezighi, Jason Lehmkuhle, Josh Rohatinsky and Antonio Vega. Some of the other top international contenders are Abderrahim Goumri, Evans Cheruiyot, Gilbert Yegon, Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot and Chala Dechase.
On the men’s side, entrants from Kenya have won all but three of the Boston Marathons since 1991. The exceptions were last year, in 2001 with South Korea’s Lee Bong-Ju and 2005 with Hailu Negussie of Ethiopia.
The event will be missing a key component as four-time women’s champion Catherine Ndereba pulled out due to a muscle tear. Ndereba won the Boston Marathon back-to-back twice, in 2000-01 and 2004-05.
Kosgei won a nail-biter last year over 2008 champion Dire Tune of Ethiopia.
Other past champions in the field are Tune and Lidiya Grigoryeva (2007) of Russia.
Lisa Larsen Weidenbach was the last American winner in the women’s division, but that was in 1985.
Some of the other elite women’s runners are Madai Perez of Mexico, Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopia, Weiwei Sun of China and Bruna Genovese of Italy and Agnes Kiprop of Kenya.
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