Chebet to pace men’s field
Two-time defending champion aims for three-peat
For Evans Chebet, there’s just something about Boston.
The two-time defending champion will be back in town this April, headlining the men’s pro field for the 2024 edition of the Boston Marathon. The 35year-old Kenyan will be seeking to become the first man in 16 years — and just the fifth ever — to win the world’s oldest marathon three times in a row, a feat last accomplished by countryman Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot in 2008.
Chebet will be the only man in the pro field with his first name on his bib, with no other returning champions on the men’s side. He will expect a familiar face in the lead pack, however, with Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay returning for another go at the defending champion.
The two men boast identical personal bests of 2:03 even (both set on the same course in Valencia). When Chebet ran away from the Boston field in 2022, Geay was the last to drop, and it was Geay who made a bold move on Heartbreak Hill last year before Chebet regained control in the final miles and outkicked the Tanzanian down the stretch.
Geay had his own taste of glory in Boston, having won the BAA 10K last June.
An exciting addition to the field is Ethiopia’s Sisay Lemma, coming off a brilliant run in Valencia, where he ran 2:01:48 to become the fourth-fastest man in history over 26.2 miles, giving him a personal best more than a minute clear of the field. But as we learned last year with Eliud Kipchoge, eye-popping personal bests don’t always translate when the Newton hills come calling.
Lemma himself has a difficult history with Boston. He didn’t finish the race in 2022 and struggled to a 2:22:08 disappointment in 2019.
The men’s pro field is notably lacking in top Americans, thanks largely in part to the Olympic year putting a marquee spring race on the back burner. You won’t see stars like Conner Mantz, a 2:07:47 performer in Chicago in October, or Boston’s perennial top American Scott Fauble toe the line in Hopkinton as they did last year.
The best the United States has to offer will be focused on the Olympic marathon trials in Orlando on Feb. 3 and a chance for a summer trip to Paris. It’s possible that some top names who miss out on an Olympic spot will be late additions to Boston, though the 10 weeks between the races would make for a short turnaround.
The fastest American in the field is Matt McDonald, with his lifetime best of 2:09:47. McDonald lives and trains in Boston, and was the second American last year, just 30 seconds back of Fauble.
Another notable American is CJ Albertson, who will be doing the Olympic trials/Boston double; that’s not much of a surprise for a man who has become known for doing what most would call crazy, like leading the first 21 miles of the race all alone in 2021, or running 2:11 marathons on consecutive weekends just last month to make sure he had a time that made him eligible for Olympic selection.
One other runner to keep an eye on is Edward Cheserek, a 22-time collegiate national champion at Oregon in track and field and cross-country who transitioned to the marathon in November with a 2:11:07 finish in New York.
The men’s wheelchair race will be headline by six-time champ Marcel Hug, who smashed the course record last year in besting his own previous mark by 57 seconds. He’ll again be challenged by twotime champion Daniel Romanchuk, the only man to defeat the Swiss in Boston since Hug’s run of dominance started in 2015.
Multiple champions from the para athletics divisions are returning this year, including Morocco’s El Amin Chentouf, the T11/T12 (vision impairment) champion who finished 50th overall in 2:31:35 in 2023. Chentouf will have for company Chaz Davis, a 2:31:48 performer who is from Massachusetts. Half marathon and 10K world record-holder Brian Reynolds is back in the T62 (lower limb impairment) classification, where he’ll battle Marko Cheseto Lemtukei, last year’s winner in 2:50:02.