Kenya’s Salina Kosgei outkicked Kara Goucher and defending champion Dire Tune in the last kilometer of the Boston Marathon on Monday, going back and forth with Tune in the final blocks of Boylston Street to win the closest women’s finish in event history.
Ethiopia’s Deriba Merga overcame his fade in the Olympic marathon at Beijing to win the men’s race, with Ryan Hall picking up another third place for US runners — their best showing in more than 20 years.
Merga had pulled away by the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, winning in 2 hours, 8 minutes, 42 seconds — 50 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Daniel Rono of Kenya, with Hall another eight seconds back.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Boston is one of the biggest marathons in the world,” Merga said. “Because of that, our people are very happy.”
Goucher led the three women as they crossed above the MassPike into Kenmore Square with 1 mile to go, but the two Africans began to pull away from her as they dueled. A year after Tune outkicked Alevtina Biktimirova to win by two seconds in what was then the closest women’s finish ever, the Ethiopian traded places with Kosgei several times on the last long stretch to the tape.
The only closer finish in the 113-year history of the event was the men’s race in 2000, when Elijah Lagat beat Gezahegne Abera with an identical time of 2:09:47.
Tune fell to the pavement after crossing the finish line and lay there for several minutes; a race spokesman said she was hospitalized as a precaution.
Men’s defending champion Robert Cheruiyot, who was going for an unprecedented fourth straight title and fifth overall, dropped out of the race between the 35K and 40K markers and was also taken to a hospital.
Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday fought through a second-set slump to post a roller-coaster 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Damir Dzumhur in his opening match at the Cincinnati Open. The Spaniard, playing his first tournament since losing to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, raced through the first set, but completely lost his way in the second, dropping his serve twice against the 33-year-old Bosnian. Alcaraz regained his intensity and cut down his errors in the third set as a seventh ace took him to a match point that was converted when Dzumhur fired wide. “It was just a roller coaster,” said the second
NEXT ROUND: World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka opened their title defenses with straight-sets wins, while Iga Swiatek and Taylor Fritz also advanced Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka got their title defenses off to smooth starts as they powered into the third round of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Saturday. The men’s and women’s top seeds, each ranked No. 1 in the world, were both competing for the first time since Wimbledon, where Sinner lifted the title and Sabalenka bowed out in the women’s semi-finals. Sinner crushed Colombian Daniel Elahi Galan 6-1, 6-1 in steamy afternoon weather, while Sabalenka beat 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-5, 6-1 under the lights of the night session. Sabalenka needed 54 minutes and a service break in the final game
Taiwan’s men’s basketball team on Monday clinched a spot in the FIBA Asia Cup quarter-finals with a 78-64 win over Jordan in Saudi Arabia, securing their best finish in the tournament since placing fourth in 2013. The win was sweet revenge for Taiwan, who were denied a quarter-final spot by Jordan at the same stage of the previous Asia Cup in 2022 after blowing a nine-point lead in the final minute and losing 97-96 on a half-court buzzer-beater. “History is part of the journey,” Taiwan head coach Gianluca Tucci said when asked about the 2022 collapse of the team, who he did
TECH ISSUES: Before Sinner’s match against Diallo the lights went out at the courts, and during it the electronic line-calling system partly failed and an alarm sounded Jannik Sinner on Monday ignored technical issues interruptions and a blaring alarm to defeat Gabriel Diallo 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) on a day of distractions at the Cincinnati Open. The top-seeded defending champion got down to business against the 35th-ranked Canadian, who was plagued by eight first-set double faults and 49 unforced errors in the match as he faced the best in the world. Sinner recovered smoothly from an early break down and had his hands full on his way into the fourth round, sending over an ace on match point after saving a set point in the tiebreaker. Play was stopped briefly with
RSS