Merga and Kosgei win Boston Marathon
Monday, 20 April 2009Ethiopia's Deriba Merga won the Boston Marathon men's race on Monday and Salina Kosgei of Kenya took the women's title, marking the second consecutive year that two Africans won the event.
Merga, 28, finished in a time of two hours, eight minutes and 42 seconds, beating Kenya's Daniel Rono and Ryan Hall of the United States in the world's oldest annually contested marathon.
Merga's win broke a three-year winning streak for Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot of Kenya.
Kosgei won by one second in a dramatic final three-way sprint with a time of 2:32:16, beating last year's winner Dire Tune of Ethiopia and Kara Goucher of the United States.
The race started under cloudy, cool conditions with the temperature at around 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 Celsius).
Hall took an early lead in the men's race, dashing to the front on a long downhill section shortly after the field crossed the start line.
The American led for most of the first eight miles, falling back in the second half as the wind began to pick up.
That aggressive move, which pulled about 13 runners into an early breakaway pack, contrasted with the women's field, which held a lower pace for the first half of the run.
The 113th edition of the Boston Marathon followed a 26.2 mile (42.2 km) course from the city's hilly suburbs to its centre.
