Kenyan runners win both male and female races at Boston Marathon 2025

Sharon Lokedi broke the Boston Marathon course record, and fellow Kenyan John Korir joined his brother as a race champion on Monday as the city celebrated the 250th anniversary of the start of the Revolutionary War.

Lokedi outran two-time defending champion Hellen Obiri over the final mile a year after losing a sprint down Boylston Street to her in one of the closest finishes in race history.

Lokedi finished in an unofficial 2 hours, 17 minutes, 22 seconds — 19 seconds ahead of Obiri, who had hoped to become the first female triple winner of the marathon since 1999, and more than 2 1/2 minutes faster than the previous Boston best.

Meanwhile, six months after winning Chicago, Korir finished in 2:04:45 — the second-fastest winning time in race history as the runners took advantage of perfect marathon weather to conquer the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston’s Copley Square.

After crossing the line, Korir was greeted by his older brother, 2012 Boston winner Wesley Korir.

Although the race has been won by a pair of unrelated John Kelleys and two different Robert Cheruiyots, the Korirs are the first brothers — or relatives of any kind — to win the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon.

In the women's category, the race has been won exclusively by Kenyan runners since 2021. In the men's race, all winners since 2019 have been Kenyan except for the winner of the 2024 race, Sisay Lemma from Ethiopia.