Reigning champ John Korir headlines Boston Marathon men’s field

Returning winners are a staple of Boston Marathon professional fields. So are these again for extra after falling simply wanting the crown.

Reigning champion John Korir will return to defend his title on the 2026 Boston Marathon, the place he’ll be joined by the opposite two podium finishers from final 12 months — Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania and Cybrian Kotut of Kenya — together with a number of different stars.

Eight of final 12 months’s high 10, together with fourth-place finisher and high American Conner Mantz, will return for this 12 months’s race. Mantz pushed the tempo for the pack chasing Korir earlier than lacking the rostrum by seconds with a private greatest of two hours, 5 minutes, 8 seconds.

Mantz used that efficiency as a springboard to run even quicker within the fall, breaking the American document in Chicago in 2:04:43, however once more narrowly lacking out on the rostrum at a significant marathon he’s been chasing.

“Ending fourth a 12 months in the past was very near my purpose of putting within the high three,” stated Mantz, who additionally owns the American document within the half-marathon, in a launch. “I’m wanting to return to Boston and race in opposition to the perfect of the perfect once more.”

One man who is aware of a factor or two about main podiums is Galen Rupp, a two-time Olympic medalist (together with a bronze within the marathon on the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Video games), the 2017 Chicago Marathon winner, and the runner-up in Boston in 2017.

Rupp, one of many largest stars ever in American distance operating, has struggled with accidents since a second-place end in Chicago in 2021, and can toe the road in Boston for the primary time since 2018.

Different high American males within the combine embrace Mantz’s coaching accomplice and 2024 Olympian Clayton Younger (seventh in Boston final 12 months), sub-2:07 finisher Biya Simbassa, and monitor Olympian Joe Klecker, who made his marathon debut in New York final fall.

Kenya’s Benson Kipruto, the 2021 Boston Marathon champion, can even be on the bus to Hopkinton for the primary time since 2023. A four-time main marathon winner (Boston 2021, Chicago 2022, Tokyo 2024, and New York final November), Kipruto is the one runner (male or feminine) to have received all three American majors.

“Boston holds a particular place in my coronary heart, as I received my first main there in 2021, and have completed third twice,” stated Kipruto in a launch. “I stay up for beginning my 2026 season and racing a quick group of males in April.”

Kipruto’s private greatest of two:02:16 is the quickest within the subject, simply eight seconds quicker than Korir’s 2:02:24 from Valencia in December. Ten males with private bests beneath 2:05 are anticipated to race in April, together with one other former Boston champion, 2016 winner Lemi Berhanu.

Within the males’s wheelchair race, Switzerland Marcel Hug will search his ninth title (and fifth in a row), the second most in historical past. As normal, he’ll anticipate to have American Daniel Romanchuk — two-time winner and the division’s solely different champion since 2015 — for firm.

“Whereas the climate could also be unpredictable, I can at all times rely on quick competitors, a difficult course, and plenty of vitality every April on the Boston Marathon,” stated Romanchuk.

The Marathon will happen on April 20.