Obiri eyes Boston history, Sisay battles tough men's field

The world's oldest annual marathon will see the sport's elite athletes trying to carve out a legacy for themselves on Monday, as Boston's defending champion Hellen Obiri hopes to become the first women to "three-peat" in 26 years.

Part of Boston's annual Patriots' Day holiday, this year's race coincides with the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord which kicked off the American Revolutionary War after Paul Revere's famous midnight ride.

The British patrol intercepted Revere before he could complete his mission but the 30 000-odd runners lining up at Hopkinton on Monday will be ready to go the distance, battling 26.2 miles (42.16 km) over a hilly course.

Obiri will bid to become the first Kenyan woman to win three Boston Marathons in a row after picking up bronze at the Paris Games and finishing second in New York last year.

The 35-year-old was met with scepticism when she made the switch from the 5 000 metres - once her signature event with two world golds - to the endurance distance in 2022 but she has quieted the doubters and won New York two years ago.

"Defending a win is never easy, and to win the Boston Marathon twice in a row was hard, but I am happy to have done it," Obiri said after being named in the elite field.

She will be pushed by Ethiopian Amane Beriso, the 2023 world champion and fastest in the field with a best time of 2:14:58 run in Valencia three years ago, while Desiree Linden, the last American to win the race in 2018, is among home hopes.

Ethiopian reigning champion Sisay Lemma headlines a stacked men's field that includes Kenyan two-time winner Evans Chebet and his compatriot John Korir, who broke the tape in Chicago last year.

There are 22 sub-2:09 men in the field, including two Americans in Conner Mantz and Clayton Young.

"I don't think I've found my limit in a marathon in a while," Young told Citius Magazine podcast this week. "There's something that wants me to know that I left it all out there."

The race will also mark the 50th anniversary of wheelchair racing in Boston, after it became the first of the majors to introduce the category in 1975.

The wheelchair race features Swiss men's defending champion Marcel Hug and American Daniel Romanchuk, along with Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who last year became the first British woman to win it.