Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma ends Kenyan streak at 2024 Boston Marathon

For the first time in eight years, the winner of the Boston Marathon donned an Ethiopian flag. Sisay Lemma won the 128th Boston Marathon, clocking the 10th-fastest time in race history, crossing the line in 2:06:17.  This is Lemma’s second career major win.

From the gun in Hopkinton, Lemma set a commanding pace, averaging two minutes and 53 seconds per kilometre through the first half. He pulled away from defending champion Evans Chebet around the seven-kilometre mark, and had built up a lead of around three and 30 seconds by the 30-km mark.

Lemma began to feel his hot early pace around 30K as temperatures in Boston hit 20 C at 11:30 a.m., and his pace slowed to 3:20/km through the Newton Hills. Despite slowing down, Lemma did not give much time to the chase group, holding on to win the men’s race and become the first Ethiopian champion since 2016.

Lemma was one of the East African favourites heading into the race, but he never had too much success in his previous Boston appearances: a DNF in 2022, and a 30th-place result in 2019. He made a statement last December in Valencia, where he clocked the fourth-fastest time in marathon history (2:01:48).

Ethiopia went one-two in the men’s race, as 23-year-old Mohamed Esa had the fastest second half in the field to cross the line in second. Defending champion Chebet was third in 2:07:22, reaching his third podium in Boston in three years.

Top 10 men

Sisay Lemma ETH 2:06:17
Mohamed Esa ETH 2:06:58
Evans Chebet KEN 2:07:22
John Korir KEN 2:07:40
Albert Korir KEN 2:07:47
Isaac Mpofu TZN 2:08:17
CJ Albertson USA 2:09:53
Yuma Morii JPN 2:09:59
Cybrian Kotut KEN 2:10:29
Zouhair Talbi MOR 2:10:45

Canadian results

Although the odds on Tristan Woodfine’s Olympic qualification were slim, the 30-year-old marathoner gave himself a shot in the first 10K of the race. Woodfine came through halfway in 66:01 in around 21st place, but his pace fell off between 25 and 30km, and he ended up stepping off the course at 30K.

Tyler Hamilton of Toronto was the top Canadian men’s finisher on Monday, finishing 39th overall in 2:24:08.

For Canadians who finished in the top 10 in their age categories, click here. 

Non-binary results

The top non-binary performers at this year’s Boston Marathon were Ryan Montgomery of Utah (2:27:45), Winter Parts of Pennsylvania (2:31:08) and Kassian Eaton of Massachusetts (2:34:51).

For full results of the 128th Boston Marathon, click here.

Canadian Running is at the 2024 Boston Marathon with Under Armour to celebrate the launch of the Velociti Elite 2, the brand’s fastest carbon racing shoe to date. Be sure to stay plugged into our socials on Instagram and X for everything Boston this weekend.