The 2026 Boston Marathon will take place on April 20. The organizers announced the elite list three months before the race — this year's field is notably deep, with 10 runners having run under 2:05 and 25 runners having run under 2:07 — a level of competitiveness worth watching.
The three athletes who stood on the podium at the Boston Marathon last year — John Korir, Alphonce Felix Simbu and CyBrian Kotut — are all returning.
Last autumnAlthough Korir faltered and dropped out in Chicago, he was back a month later in Valencia, clocking 2:02:24 — the third-fastest time of the year — declaring his return to the throne. Korir wasn't the only one to withdraw in Chicago,Kotut likewise closed out the 2025 season with a DNF.
Simbu produced one of the most dramatic comebacks in history at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, snatching victory in the final seconds to win gold and deliver Tanzania’s first-ever world title. Interestingly, races that feature Simbu often come down to those last-second finishes — his and Kotut’s times at the Boston Marathon were separated by less than one second, so this year counts as yet another tight rematch.
Korir, who is aiming to defend his title, will also face challengers who are former Boston Marathon champions: the 2021 Boston champion Benson Kipruto (Benson Kipruto） and the 2016 Boston champion Lemi Berhanu (Lemi Berhanu）.
Kipruto can be considered Korir's chief rival at the Boston Marathon. With a PB of 2:02:16 he is also the top seed, and Kipruto and Korir have met three times on the World Marathon Majors stage—twice in Boston and once in Chicago—with Kipruto unbeaten.
Holding trophies from Boston, Tokyo, New York and Chicago, Kipruto may be the male runner in the world closest to completing the career Grand Slam of majors.
Behanu, who won Boston at 21, apart from finishing second at the 2021 Boston Marathon (that day he lost to Kipruto), has not produced many standout results since. However, he has appeared frequently in races in China, winning four times—at the 2017 Xiamen Marathon, the 2018 Hengshui Lake Marathon, and the 2024 and 2025 Beijing Marathons. This year's Boston will be his sixth appearance, one more than Kipruto.
In 2025, Conner Mantzwas like a whirlwind: he finished fourth overall in Boston in 2:05:08, then reset the American half marathon record in New York, and later rewrote a U.S. national record that had stood for 23 years in Chicago. Back in Boston, he's very likely to be targeting a podium finish.
36-year-old Dutch athlete Abdi Nageeye is the 2024 New York Marathon champion and a silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, but younger contenders remain highly competitive.
Whether it's Italy's national record holderYohanes Chiappinellior Lesotho's national record holderTebello Ramakongoana are 7-8 years younger than him.Ramakongoana set a national record at last year's Xiamen Marathon and reached the podium at the Sydney stop of the World Marathon Majors; he's currently on the rise.
The last one is Australia'sAndrew Buchanan, who, along with Jiayapineli, broke their respective national records at the 2024 Valencia Marathon. In addition to being a marathon runner, he also works as a PE teacher.
Japanese marathoners have often produced surprising performances at the Boston Marathon, like Yuki Kawauchi's shock victory in 2018, Suguru Osako completing his debut and reaching the podium at the 2017 Boston Marathon, and Yuma Morii, the second Japanese runner in history to break 2 hours 10 minutes — he’s also an amateur. What kind of performance willAkira Akasaki bring this time?
Akira Akasaki himself is a runner full of surprises: whether fighting through the pouring rain in the 2023 MGC final, finishing sixth on the hilly Paris Olympic course, or standing out in last year’s heat in Berlin to finish second, he often endures on tough courses and “outlasts” many rivals. Maybe that’s a trait suited to the Boston Marathon.
Of course, there are many other athletes to watch on this year’s course, including the reigning Sydney Marathon champion Hailemaryam Kiros, last year’s Chicago Marathon third-place finisher Alex Masai, Mohammed Esa, who urgently needs a win to erase his “perennial runner-up” label, and a host of American domestic elites.
Since the turn of the 21st century, Kenyan men have stood atop the podium 16 times, while their main rivals from Ethiopia have done so only 6 times.
Over those two decades, Ethiopian men only achieved back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016, while Kenyan men have much more dominant streaks — three separate runs of three consecutive victories, the most recent being four straight years. Kenyan men swept the podium last year; will this year be any different? At least on paper, the Kenyans still look stronger.
