MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
This year's Boston Marathon is a record breaker. Esteban Bustillos from member station GBH News reports on the race.
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ESTEBAN BUSTILLOS, BYLINE: It was a perfect day for running on Monday, but it was an especially good day for Kenya's John Korir. Korir, who won Boston last year, not only repeated as the men's champion but set a new course record with a time of two hours, one minute and 52 seconds. That's over a minute better than the previous record that had stood since 2011.
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BUSTILLOS: The crowd screamed as he crossed the finish line. He later jumped for joy when he was told he broke the record.
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JOHN KORIR: I knew I would retain my title, but I didn't know I would run that fast.
BUSTILLOS: Korir's run highlighted a day of dominance by former champions in Boston. Kenya's Sharon Lokedi, who set the women's division course record last year, claimed the crown once again with the time of 2:18:51.
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SHARON LOKEDI: I just wanted to run as fast as I could. And I - all I wanted to is just to get to the finish line as fast as possible.
BUSTILLOS: Switzerland's Marcel Hug lived up to his nickname of The Silver Bullet by pulling off a four-peat in the men's wheelchair division with a time of 1:16:06. Just one more win and he'll tie the Boston men's wheelchair record of 10 titles.
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MARCEL HUG: I mean, every single win here in Boston is really something special, very unique.
BUSTILLOS: Britain's Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the women's wheelchair division for the second time after winning in 2024. But those are just the elite champions. There were about 30,000 participants in all, including astronaut Suni Williams, Boston Bruins legend Zdeno Chara and Chelsea Clinton, who finished. All parts of Boston's big, sweaty parade.
For NPR News, I'm Esteban Bustillos.
(SOUNDBITE OF CATCHASER'S "THE SUN WAS CANDY") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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