Cherangany MP Korir, Cherop back to defend Boston crowns

By Jonathan Komen

Cherangany MP Wesley Korir and Sharon Cherop will defend their titles at the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday.

Korir and Cherop will take on a classy field boasting four men with a sub-2:05 and three women with sub 2:22 personal bests, to the world’s oldest 42km run and which is part of the World Major Marathon series.

Despite a blistering heat, the two won last year against a stellar line up, with Korir outsmarting Levy Matebo in the final mile as Cherop fired away on the homestretch to win by two seconds.

Cherop, who trekked over six-kilometres to Tirap Primary School in the hilly terrains of Marakwet during her childhood, has travelled with her husband Mathew Kosgei Bowen and their two children to Boston.

Kosgei did not watch Sharon winning Boston Marathon last year as he participated at the Vienna Marathon as a pace setter, which coincided with Boston.

“My husband missed out the action last year. But he has vowed to accompany me to Boston. I have prepared well for the competition. I want to return home a two-time Boston Marathon winner,” said Cherop, who picked up athletics training while herding goats in her rural home in Marakwet.

Cherop will offer a mouth-watering clash against three Ethiopian women with sub-2:22 personal bests – two-time Dubai champion and 2:19:31 course record-holder Aselefech Mergia, World half-marathon champion Meseret Hailu, and 2011 Frankfurt champion Mamitu Daska.

Rita Cheptoo, the 2006 Boston winner, makes a comeback as does Olympic fifth-place finisher Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko of Ukraine. Mexican record-holder Madai Pérez and a fourth Ethiopian, Alemitu Abera and Kenya’s Diana Chepkemoi are also in the race.

Shalane Flanagan and Kara Goucher, both past global medallists over 10,000m, will lead American hopes.

Korir, who beat Levy Matebo in the final stretch last year, will be inspired by his new status.

“I will compete in Boston as Cherangany MP so the competition will include the whole constituency,” Korir told FeverPitch after winning the polls.

Moses ‘Engine Kubwa’ Mosop, who basks in a jaw-dropping 2:03.6 best
mark he posted in 2011 at the course, returns to the American race for another laurel.

Mosop, who finished third in Rotterdam Marathon last year and boasts the world’s second all-time best, will be ken to prove his critics wrong in Boston after failing to break the world record in Rotterdam.

He will be up against Ethiopia’s 2010 New York City winner Gebre Gebremariam, who finished third in Boston in 2011 with a time of 2:04:53.Mosop will also square it out with a strong Ethiopian field that feature 2011 Los Angeles Marathon winner and former World Youth Champion Markos Geneti, Paris and Mumbai runner-up Raji Assefa, and the 2012 Hamburg and 2011 Toronto winner Shami Abdullah Dawit.

Mosop, a former shoe cobbler, will join Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, the 2010 Boston champion and former course record-holder.