For the second time in three years, Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia won the Boston Marathon. The runner battled the damp and rainy conditions of the 119th annual race to finish with a time of 2:09:17.
The Ethiopian runner bested his 2013 first-place finish time of 2:10:22.
Desisa – wearing the same Nike Zoom Streak 3 he wore to win the 2013 marathon – kissed his hands and waved to the crowd as he crossed the finish line with a full 31-second lead on Yemane Adhane Tsegay, also of Ethiopia, who finished in second place with a time of 2:09:48.
Skechers-sponsored runner Meb Keflezighi — who won the marathon in 2014 with a time of 2:08:37 — was unable to repeat the success of last year’s first-place finish. The American runner placed eighth this year with a time of 2:12:42.
Keflezighi was the frontrunner at the 35K mark, hitting the landmark with a time of 1:47:59. Although he was in the lead, it was not enough to best the now two-time marathon winner, Desisa. The Ethiopian winner made his way to first at the 40K mark with a time of 2:02:39, where Keflezighi fell back to ninth place with a time of 2:04:58.
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Keflezighi was not the first male American runner to cross the finish line. Dathan Ritzenhein crossed first for the U.S. runners, finishing seventh with a time of 2:11:20.
For the women, Caroline Rotich of Kenya took first, finishing with a time of 2:24:55. The first female U.S. runner to cross the finish line was Desiree Linden with a time of 2:25:39.
