Evans Chebet claimed back-to-back Boston Marathon titles to wreck Eliud Kipchoge’s ambitions of winning his fifth Abbott World Marathon Major.
Chebet stormed away in the final mile after fending off the challenges of his training partner Benson Kipruto and Tanzanian Gabriel Geay.
Geay’s move at 19 miles was the decisive factor that finally broke up the established leading group and ended Kipchoge’s challenge. The world record holder fell off the pack and was unable to recover, eventually finishing sixth.
Chebet, who has now strung three Majors victories together after winning Boston and New York City in 2022, stayed calm as Geay made his move, and eventually reeled the leader in.
The pair then exchanged blows as Kipruto began to fall away, but the 2021 champion rallied to re-join the contest until Chebet found his final killer blow to leave both challengers in his wake.
Geay edged Kipruto out by two seconds in a footrace for second and third, while Albert Korir, the 2021 AbbottWMM Series champion, was fourth and Moroccan Zouhair Tabir sealed fifth ahead of Kipchoge.
Scott Fauble was the first home-based finisher in seventh.
Chebet became the first man to defend his Boston title since Robert Cheruiyot in 2008, and did so by running the third-fastest winning time in the race’s history.
The 34-year-old now takes a share of the lead in Series XV of the Abbott World Marathon Majors and may have ambitions of his own to take on the challenge of winning all six. He has run five different Majors in all but his other best places to date are third in Berlin and fourth in Tokyo and London.
Kipchoge will have to go back to the drawing board to assess his aims to win every Major. He still moves to five stars with New York City the only race he has yet to take part in.
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