SPORTS

2013 winner Desisa wins another Boston Marathon

from Tribune wires

BOSTON – Lelisa Desisa won his first Boston Marathon in 2013.

He didn’t have much time to celebrate.

A few hours after Desisa broke the tape on Boylston Street, two bombs near the finish line turned what should be the pinnacle of any distance runner’s career into an afterthought.

Desisa earned his second Boston Marathon title Monday, finishing in 2 hours, 9 minutes, 17 seconds to claim a golden olive wreath, the $150,000 first prize and a winner’s medal to replace the one he donated to the city in memory of the victims.

And this one he plans to enjoy.

“This medal, I think, is for me,” Desisa said.

Kenya’s Caroline Rotich won the women’s race, beating Mare Dibaba in a shoulder-to-shoulder sprint down Boylston Street to win by 4 seconds as the world’s most prestigious marathon took a tentative step back toward normal.

Boston Athletic Association spokesman Jack Fleming interrupted the winner’s news conference to place the trophy on the table next to Desisa and 2014 winner Meb Keflezighi and thank them both for helping the race heal.

“In 2013, Lelisa had won and we were sitting in these same chairs. And then soon after, and unfortunately, Lelisa did not get to have the kind of victory celebration that a champion of the Boston Marathon should have,” Fleming said. “Lelisa, we want you to get your due today.”

Desisa was in the leading pack for the entire race, pulling away to beat countryman Yemane Adhane Tsegay by 31 seconds in the first 1-2 finish for Ethiopia in the race’s history. Kenya’s Wilson Chebet was third, another 34 seconds back.

Dathan Ritzenhein of Rockford, Michigan, was the first American, in seventh. Keflezighi finished eighth a year after his victory — the first for an American man since 1983 — gave the city a tangible symbol of its comeback.

“I was crying on Boylston Street, because it was bringing up memories, good and bad,” said Keflezighi, who wrote the names of the bombing victims on his race bib last year. “People were cheering like crazy, saying ‘U-S-A!’ I was chanting with them.”

Meanwhile, 37 Montanans competed in the world’s most famous marathon. Great Falls’ Christi O’Connor and Josiah Badger finished in 3:18:24 and 3:23:41, respectively. Conrad resident Vanessa Bucklin raced home in 4:30:20.

Bozeman’s Kalvin Tucker was the quickest of the 37, coming in at the 2:52:06 mark. Governor Steve Bullock finished the race, his second Boston Marathon, in 3:45:27.

Two years after the explosions, “Boston Strong” was still ubiquitous — on shirts and signs, written in chalk on the street and shouted by spectators. But the crowds along the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Copley Square were smaller than in 2014, no doubt thinned by the mid-40s temperatures, stiff wind and rain that was expected to pick up in the afternoon.

American Tatyana McFadden won her third straight women’s wheelchair race, and Marcel Hug won his first men’s title earlier Monday. Ernst Van Dyk, the most decorated Boston Marathon competitor in history, finished second in his attempt to win the race for an 11th time.

Security was visible but not intrusive for the second running since the bombings. State and local police, some riding bicycles and others on all-terrain vehicles, were supplemented by National Guard soldiers who walked alongside the road, applauding passing runners and occasionally reaching across the temporary fencing to high-five fans.