There is a throne awaiting a new king.
As we approach the 129th Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America, the men’s marathon scene is a more open and unpredictable landscape than it has been for a decade.
Since he won his first Abbott World Marathon Major in 2014, Eliud Kipchoge pocketed 13 victories including two Olympic golds.
For 80 percent of that decade, if Kipchoge stood on a start line, the question was not whether he would win, the question was by how much, and in what time.
With the great man’s greatest days now seemingly behind him, without a win since 2023, we have entered a new era in which the title of ‘best in the woeld’ vacant.
Kelvin Kiptum’s astonishing 2023 world record in Chicago made him the next man to lay claim to that maxim, but his tragic early death in February 2024 has left a void in the rarified air of sub 2:01 marathon-running.
Kipchoge’s decline and Kiptum’s heart-breaking loss preceded the first year (excluding the anomalous COVID years of 2020 and 2021) since 2012 that we had not seen a repeat winner of Majors in a 12-month calendar period.
In Boston on Monday, when the gun fires in Hopkinton, the fight to earn that No. 1 spot resumes.
Returning champion Sisay Lemma will be hungry to prove he still has the strength and stamina to make it back to the top of the podium.
Last year, he ran a blistering first half of 60:19 and at one point was sitting on a lead of two minutes and 29 seconds before Heartbreak Hill had its way with the Ethiopian.
He was able to hold the chasers off, eventually crossing the line 41 seconds ahead of a fast-closing Mohamed Esa.
Lemma missed the Olympics through injury, and his return in Valenica in December produced a 2:04 that perhaps suggested his injury woes had played a part in that below-par performance.
If he is now fully fit, with a year’s worth of Boston IQ in his database, his tactics should be sharper than they were on his debut.
2024 was a breakthrough year for John Korir, winning the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:02:44 after coming fourth in Boston.
If the Kenyan can win on Monday, he and his brother Wesley would become the first siblings to have won the race in its 129-year history.
Korir’s namesake Albert also returns after a fifth place here in 2024 and third place in New York in November. He has been unerringly consistent across both races, coming fourth and second in Boston and New York in 2023, which were improvements on his sixth- and seventh-place finishes in 2022, a year after he triumphed in New York to win the AbbottWMM series.
Their fellow Kenyan Evans Chebet arrives with the 2022 and 2023 titles to his name, and was third last year before coming second in New York in November.
One marathon newcomer to keep an eye on is the Ethiopian Mukta Edris, the two-time world 5000m champion.
Edris defeated three-time 10,000m world champion Joshua Cheptegai at the Dam tot Damloop 10-mile road race in Amsterdam in September 2024 and clocked 60:52 in the Delhi Half Marathon in October.
The presence of USA double act Connor Mantz and Clayton Young will undoubtedly provide the race with an intriguing subplot as is often the case.
The pair have frequently urged each other on to strong performances in the marathon, and on a course known for early breakaways, perhaps it is an opportunity for this improving pair to test the pedigree athletes at the front of the field.
That’s the beauty of the men’s marathon in 2025. It’s waiting for someone to write the next headline. Boston is the ideal place to do it.
More Boston content
- Listen to our pre-Boston Marathon Talk show here.
- Who can stop Marcel Hug?
- The woman on the brink of Boston immortality
- Debrunner's date with destiny
