Kiplagat and Cherono set for Boston Marathon

Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat (right) compete in the women's marathon athletics event at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London on August 6, 2017. [File]

Two-time world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat and Chicago Marathon winner Lawrence Cherono will lead Kenyan charges at the 124th Boston Marathon showdown on April 20.

Organisers have assembled a talented field of seasoned athletes with 12 women holding personal best times under 2:23 and five under 2:20.

There are five former Boston Marathon winners in Worknesh Degefa, the defending Boston champion and Ethiopian marathon national record holder, two-time Olympian Desiree Linden of the United States, who won Boston in 2018, Kiplagat of Kenya, who won Boston in 2017, 2015 Boston Marathon champion Caroline Rotich and Ethiopia’s Buzunesh Deba, the 2014 Boston Marathon course record holder.  

Kiplagat, who made her debut in the national team to the 1996 World Athletics Championships while a pupil at Kapkoi Primary School in Elgeyo Marakwet, said she expects a tough race.

“I will compete for the fourth time in Boston. We will have a strong team and I will give it my best,” Kiplagat, who is a three-time World Marathon Majors series winner said.

In that gunpowder, there is Ethiopia’s Mare Dibaba, a runner up at the 2019 Boston Marathon in 2:20.21. Olympian Rose Chelimo of Bahrain is another threat, having claimed a silver and gold medal at the last two World Athletics Championships Marathons (2019 and 2017).

World Half Marathon silver and bronze medalist Mary Ngugi, seventh in 2019, is another star to watch.