The second cease of the 2026 Abbott World Marathon Main circuit is simply days away, and principally your complete operating world might be, each bodily and emotionally, heading to the Boston Marathon. Eight of final 12 months’s top-10 Boston Marathon finishers within the males’s discipline might be returning to the beginning line in Hopkinton, Mass., together with all three podium placers and Canada’s Rory Linkletter. Ontario’s Ben Preisner will even make his world main debut.
Can Korir defend his title?
Headlining the sphere is reigning champion John Korir, who received final 12 months’s race within the second-fastest time in historical past. The Kenyan is available in sizzling off a victory on the Valencia Marathon in December, the place he ran his 2:02:24 private finest. He additionally received Chicago in 2024.
Korir’s brother, Wes Korir, received Boston in 2012, making them the primary brothers to say the title.
Final 12 months’s Boston runner-up and Tokyo 2025 world champion Alphonce Felix Simbu of Tanzania (2:04:38 PB) will even be again within the combine, alongside defending third-place finisher Cybrian Kotut of Kenya (2:03:22 PB). The pair closed out final 12 months’s race with a dash end.
Kenya’s Benson Kipruto enters with the quickest time within the discipline, 2:02:16; he’s the primary individual to win all three American marathon majors (Boston 2021, Chicago 2022, New York Metropolis 2025). In 2024, he additionally received the Tokyo Marathon and Olympic bronze, and is a former Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion.
Different notable entrants embody Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist and NYC 2024 champion Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands (2:04:20), Sydney 2025 champion Hailemaryam Kiros of Ethiopia (2:04:35) and Kenya’s Alex Masai, who took third at Chicago 2025 in his 2:04:37 PB. With American file holder and final 12 months’s fourth-place finisher Conner Mantz out with an harm, Clayton Younger is available in as the highest runner from the U.S. contingent.
Ethiopia’s 2016 Boston Marathon champion Lemi Berhanu is slated to return to the beginning line, marking 10 years since his victory.
Canadians intention to make massive strikes in Boston
Final 12 months, Calgary’s Linkletter delivered the quickest Boston efficiency ever by a Canadian, putting sixth in 2:07:02. The efficiency smashed his top-10 purpose, marked a 59-second private finest and, on the time, marked the second-fastest marathon in Canadian historical past.
Linkletter has since improved that mark, operating 2:06:49 for ninth on the 2025 Chicago Marathon. He nonetheless sits second behind Cam Levins’s 2:05:36 nationwide file. This 12 months, Linkletter returns to Boston with a a lot larger purpose: looking down a spot on the rostrum.
Preisner, Canada’s third-fastest marathoner, might be making his world main debut. The Oakville, Ont., native owns a 2:08 PB and has represented Canada at three World Championships and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Video games. He’s been sharing his Boston marathon coaching plans on his new Instagram account, @bensmarathontraining.
Schedule + watch
The 2026 Boston Marathon takes place on Monday, April 20.
(All occasions in ET)
9:06 a.m. – Males’s wheelchair
9:09 a.m. – Ladies’s wheelchair
9:37 a.m. – Skilled males
9:47 a.m. – Skilled ladies
9:50 a.m. – Para athletics
10:00 a.m. – Wave 1
For viewers in Canada, the race might be streamed reside on TSN and Quebec’s RDS.
Watch this house Thursday for our elite ladies’s preview.
