Boston Marathon ladies’s preview: Sharon Lokedi prepared for Kenyan showdown

For the final three years, the ladies’s champion on the Boston Marathon has been draped in a Kenyan flag on the end line. Sharon Lokedi appears to proceed that streak on Boylston St. on Monday. A win for Lokedi might cement her place on the Kenyan Olympic group on the summer time’s Paris Olympics, the place she aspires to succeed in the rostrum.

Regardless of dealing with an damage that sidelined her from the 127th Boston Marathon final April, Lokedi fought again to return and defend her marathon title in New York Metropolis final November, ending third in a tightly contested last two miles between her compatriot Hellen Obiri and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey.

Lokedi will get the possibility to line up towards her competitor and pal, Obiri, as soon as once more on Monday. Obiri enters the race because the defending champion and the odds-on favorite to win, however the stakes this yr in Boston are increased, with positions on the Kenyan Olympic group on the road. Each Obiri and Lokedi are among the many six athletes named on the Kenyan Olympic choice shortlist earlier this month. A win or top-three end would doubtless imply each ladies could be in a primary place to realize choice come the Could 31 marathon group deadline.

“I wish to run to one of the best of my skills and present what kind of form I’m in,” says Lokedi. “I’m actually excited to be feeling wholesome [this time around] in Boston and rested.”

The 30-year-old, who holds a marathon PB of two:23:23, attested that Boston all the time has a world-class subject and expects a lot of competitors come Marathon Monday.

The competitors

The ladies’s race will characteristic a traditionally quick elite subject that features reigning Boston and New York Metropolis Marathon champion Obiri, who shall be seeking to grow to be the primary lady to take back-to-back wins since her compatriot Catherine Ndereba did it in 2004 and 2005. (Ndereba additionally gained in 2000, 2001 and 2002.)

Main the best way for Ethiopia is 2:17-marathoner Tadu Teshome. She was the runner-up on the 2021 Berlin Marathon and positioned fifth within the Chicago Marathon final fall. She’ll be joined by Hiwot Gebremaryam (beforehand Gebrekidan) (2:17:59), who was eighth in Boston final yr, and 5 different Ethiopian ladies with sub-2:20 private bests. All seven shall be seeking to break the Kenyan streak to grow to be the primary Ethiopian champion since Worknesh Degefa in 2019.

Different prime athletes embrace two-time champion Edna Kiplagat, who gained in 2017 (and was additionally subsequently named the winner of the 2021 marathon when the unique winner, Diana Kipyokei of Kenya, was stripped of the title after a constructive doping take a look at), and Individuals Emma Bates, who was fifth final yr in 2:22:10, and Sara Corridor, who completed fifth within the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon (2:26:06) on Feb. 3.

Lokedi understands what she’s up towards–not simply the extremely aggressive subject, but in addition the problem of the hilly point-to-point course, which begins in Hopkinton and finishes within the coronary heart of town on Boylston Road close to Copley Sq..

“Boston is a unique animal, however I’m all the time excited for a problem,” says Lokedi. She advised Canadian Working she shall be sporting Underneath Armour’s latest carbon-plated mannequin, the Velociti Elite 2. “It has the smooth foam I like, and so they make me really feel quick.”

The Canadian elites

There’s a giant Canadian presence in Boston this yr, which was imagined to be led by (now) three-time Olympian Malindi Elmore, however as a consequence of a nagging hamstring damage, Elmore determined to withdraw from the Boston subject to concentrate on her preparations for Paris.

Malindi Elmore pulls out of Boston Marathon as a consequence of hamstring damage

Quebec’s Anne-Marie Comeau will paved the way for the Canadian ladies’s contingent in her fourth profession marathon and first main. Comeau is coming off a second-place end on the Canadian Marathon Championships in Toronto final fall, the place she ran 2:34:51 to take six minutes off her earlier finest. A enjoyable reality about Comeau is that she’s a multi-sport athlete; she competed in cross-country snowboarding on the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and was the highest Canadian lady on the 2023 World Mountain and Path Working Championships in Innsbruck, Austria.

Becoming a member of Comeau on the elite checklist are Toronto’s Krezonoski twins, Michelle and Kim, who shall be working Boston for the primary time. It is going to be Michelle’s return to the marathon distance after an damage final yr saved her out of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Her private finest of two:36:39 is from the California Worldwide Marathon in 2022–the identical place that Kim ran her PB of two:37:20.