Boston Marathon 2025: John Korir of Kenya wins the men’s race

John Korir has hit another career milestone: victory in the men’s race at the almighty Boston Marathon.

At the 129th running of the historic race on Monday (21 April), having broken apart what had been an eight-man pack, Korir of Kenya pushed ahead just before the 20-mile mark to run alone – and unchallenged – all the way to the finish line. He conquered the course in 2:04:45, which is the fastest winning time since countryman Geoffrey Mutai set the men’s course record of 2:03:02 in 2011.

But it wasn’t all plain sailing. Just seconds into the race, shortly after passing the start line in the small town of Hopkinton, 28-year-old Korir was tripped from behind, causing him to fall. He quickly regained his footing and appeared unharmed, although his bib had been ripped off his race vest in the process. He stuffed the bib in his shorts to keep it safely upon his person and, thankfully, over the 26 remaining miles, no course marshals attempted to remove whom they might have thought was the world’s fastest race bandit.

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Korir crossed the finish line with his bib crumpled in his left hand, having pulled it out from his shorts in the closing seconds.

Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania finished second in 2:05:04, just inches ahead of CyBrian Kotut of Kenya, who was given the same time for his third-place finish. The duo’s sprint finish was one for the books.

American marathon runner Conner Mantz stayed level with Simbu and Kotut until the final, famous stretch on Boylston Street, where he dropped slightly to finish fourth in 2:05:08 – the second-fastest time from a US runner in Boston Marathon history, following Ryan Hall’s 2:04:58 in 2011. Although Mantz can claim the time as his personal best, Boston’s point-to-point course isn’t record-eligible, so his ‘official’ PB remains the 2:07:47 that he ran at the 2023 Chicago Marathon.

Mantz’s training partner Clayton Young placed seventh in 2:07:04, while Rory Linkletter of Canada – who was sporting the buzziest shoe of the weekend, the Puma Fast-R Nitro Elite 3 – bettered Young by one place and two seconds. Defending champion Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia, meanwhile, lost touch with the lead pack in the 17th mile and, shortly after, was seen leaning against roadside fencing.

Korir’s Boston win was a sweet upgrade on his fourth-place finish at the same race in 2024. It also comes just six months after his victory at the 2024 Chicago Marathon, where his time of 2:02:44 helped to establish him as one of the best marathon runners in the world. In fact, this was the second-fastest time in the race’s history and, for Korir, a PB by more than two minutes.

Korir is not the only member of his family to have thrived in the capital city of Massachusetts, however. His older brother, Wesley Korir, clocked 2:12:40 at the 2012 Boston Marathon to take the men’s title 13 years ago. As such, the Korir siblings are now the first pair of brothers to have won the Boston Marathon.

Korir trains in Eldoret with – by Kenyan standards – a relatively underwhelming group of nine runners. Besides Korir, only one other runner in this group races outside of Kenya – that’s Edwin Kibichy, who placed eighth at the 2025 Paris Marathon in a time of 2:08:29.