Heartbreak Hill Still Belongs to Kenyans

Catherine Ndereba on Monday won the Boston Marathon for the third time in one of the hottest and closest races in the event’s history.

Timothy Cherigat won the men’s race in 2 hours 10 minutes 37 seconds to complete a Kenyan sweep.

Ndereba finished in 2:24:27, outsprinting Ethiopia’s Elfenesh Alemu in the last mile to win by 16 seconds -- equaling the closest finish in the women’s division.

Cherigat broke away from Robert Cheboror just before Heartbreak Hill to win by 1:12 as the Kenyans took the first four spots and six of the first seven in the men’s division.

A Kenyan man has won 13 of the last 14 races.

But this time, the attention was on the women, who got a head start for the first time and left Hopkinton 29 minutes ahead of the men and the recreational field of 20,404. Without the clutter of the male runners, Ndereba and Alemu ran side by side and alone for 10 miles before they reached Kenmore Square.

That’s when Ndereba, the reigning world champion who won here in 2000 and 2001, sprinted into the lead. Alemu, who had back pains and cramping in the 85-degree heat, didn’t have the energy to respond.

Ndereba’s time -- the 11th-best for a woman at Boston -- was fast for a tough course and one of the hottest races in the event’s 108-year history, though still cooler than the 96 degrees reached in the 1976 “Run for the Hoses.”

Defending champion Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot was among the lead pack of six men running side by side at the halfway mark. He stopped soon after that, and though he rejoined the race, he was no longer in contention.