April 20 (UPI) -- Kenyans John Korir and Sharon Lokedi successfully defended their Boston Marathon crowns as the respective top male and female finishers Monday in Boston.
Korir and Lokedi became just the second set of male and female runners to win the race in consecutive years, joining Cosmas Ndeti and Uta Pippig, the top man and woman from the 1994 and 1995 Boston Marathons.
"It felt like I was back home," Korir, who bested his 2025 finish time by nearly three minutes, said on the ESPN broadcast.
Korir clocked a course-record 2:01:52, with an average pace of about 4:39 per mile, on the 26.2-mile course, which started in Hopkinton, dropped down to Ashland, wound through Framingham, Wellesley, Newton and Brookline and ended on Boylston Street.
Lokedi crossed the finish line at 2:18:51, 00:44 ahead of second-place Loice Chemnung in the 130th edition of the World Marathon Major. She also set a course record.
