A total of 32,000 runners will compete at the world’s oldest annually run marathon as Boston gears up for its annual extravaganza on Monday 21 April.
The 129th edition of the world famous race is being held on the 250th anniversary of Patriots’ Day, marking the American Revolution’s early beginnings just a few miles north of the race route.
The Boston Marathon is part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, along with international marathons in Tokyo, London, Sydney, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City.
And the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) received a record number of qualifier applications for this year’s race, which covers the 26-mile/42km course from rural Hopkinton to Boston.
A stacked pro field includes no fewer than 22 sub-2:09 men and 17 sub-2:23 women. Returning as open division champions are Hellen Obiri (Kenya) and Sisay Lemma (Ethiopia).
Start time and how to watch live
It starts at 9.06am local time on Monday 21 April with the wheelchair athletes going off first. In Europe that’s 14.06 in the UK and 15.06 CET. The pro men start at 9.37 and the women go off at 9.47.
In the USA the race will be broadcast on WCVB Channel 5 (locally) and ESPN (nationally). For the rest of the world, FloSports will be streaming the race. Eurosport is also among a host of international broadcasters.
Men’s elite field
Defending champion Lemma, who has a personal best of 2:01:48, will take some beating after dominating last year’s event to win by 41 seconds in 2:06:17. He was nearly two minutes ahead of the field at one point on a largely solo run.
Also in contention is two-time champion Evans Chebet of Kenya, who came third last year, and his countryman John Korir, who has a PB of 2:02:44 and won last year’s Chicago Marathon.
The men’s elite field is deep and competitive for 2025. Twenty-two men have run sub-2:09:00, with 13 running sub-2:07, and four of the top six finishers of last year’s American Olympic Trials will take part – Conner Mantz (2:07:47 PB), Clayton Young (2:08:00), C.J. Albertson (2:08:17), and Zach Panning (2:09:16).
Shadrack Biwott was the last American man to make the podium in Boston, finishing third in horribly wet conditions in 2018.
Women’s elite field
Obiri, who won the bronze medal at the Olympics last year, will attempt to become the first woman since 1999 to win three consecutive Boston Marathon titles.
That is a feat only four women have ever achieved so there is another little slice of history on the line for the Kenyan, who is also the only woman to have won world titles in indoor track, outdoor track and cross country.
She will face fierce competition from the deepest American women’s field in race history, with Des Linden, Dakotah Popehn, Keira D’Amato, Emma Bates, Jessica McClain, Sara Hall, and Sara Vaughn all looking to make their mark. In all, 14 of the U.S. women taking part have run sub-2:26.
But Obiri’s greatest challenge could come from Ethiopians Amane Beriso and Yalemzerf Yehualaw. Beriso only just lost out to Obiri in 2023 and her 2:14:58 in Valencia in 2022 is the fifth fastest marathon of all-time.
Yehualaw, meanwhile, won the 2022 London Marathon and is also tipped to compete for a podium finish.
