(Reuters) -Kenyan John Korir overcame a tumble near the starting line to win the Boston Marathon on Monday, finishing in two hours four minutes and 45 seconds, while his compatriot Sharon Lokedi denied Hellen Obiri a third straight title.
The 2024 Chicago winner Korir recovered quickly from the fall and pulled away at the 20-mile mark, building a minute cushion between himself and the rest of the field with two miles to go, before jogging through the finish.
Tanzanian Alphonce Simbu eked out a second-place finish in 2:05:04, battling Kenyan Cybrian Kotut down the final straight.
With the win, Korir builds on his family’s legacy after his older brother, Wesley, won in 2012. They are the only two siblings to have won the Boston Marathon.
The 2022 New York winner Lokedi and Kenyan Obiri were locked in a tense battle with less than two miles to go before Obiri, who won bronze in Paris, began to lose energy.
Lokedi surged through the final 1,000 metres, crossing the line in 2:17:22 with Obiri 19 seconds slower and Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw (2:18:06) in third.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)
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