Best Of Boston 2025 ⏱️

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Spring marathon season is in full swing with the Boston Marathon in the books and the London Marathon coming up this weekend. Whether you’re chasing a new PR or soaking in the energy of race day, your gear matters. We’re celebrating the grit, the early mornings and every mile in between. Swiftwick’s marathon sale comes around only twice a year—spring and fall—and it’s your chance to take 20% off everything sitewide right now through Sunday, April 27th.

The CITIUS MAG team wore Swiftwick socks during our fourth place finish at the New Balance Marathon Relay. Olympian Aisha Praught-Leer pictured above wearing the Flite XT Mid-Crew in black.

Compiled by David Melly and Paul Snyder

The Stars Arrive On Boylston Street ⭐

Who needs a red carpet when you have the painted blue lines through Boston’s Back Bay?

When the top runners in Monday’s Boston Marathon turned right on Hereford, then left on Boylston to complete the 129th running of the historic 26.2 mile course, there were a fair few familiar names near the top of the ranks. But once they crossed the finish line, with John Korir breaking the tape in the men’s race and Sharon Lokedi in the women’s, the dynamic of the global marathoning scene felt decidedly different.

There weren’t a lot of true “upsets” or surprises out of Boston this year; instead the unifying theme seemed to be a lot of up-and-coming stars making a true statement that they’re not so up-and-coming any more. They’re here.

John Korir has been running marathons since 2018 and running in the 2:05s since 2022, but it wasn’t until last fall that he became much more of a household name via his first World Marathon Major victory, an epic 2:02:44 win in Chicago. After finishing ninth in Boston in 2023 and fourth in 2024, all of a sudden Korir was forcing the world to consider him a serious contender for the win.

But Korir still had to go through defending champ Sisay Lemma, two-time champ Evans Chebet, and the rest of the talented elite field, and when he fell flat on his face a few steps into the race, it looked like perhaps he wouldn’t get the chance to back up his Chicago performance. But ultimately, Lemma and Chebet would both clock DNFs, Korir would stick with the lead pack through a fast first half (61:54), then drop a lethal move up Heartbreak hill to put 16 seconds on the field between mile 20 and 21, and ride the momentum to the finish. He broke the tape in 2:04:45, the second-fastest winning mark in race history. He also became half of the first sibling duo to win Boston titles—his older brother Wesley won the 2012 edition of the race.

After the dust settled on Monday, Korir now looks like a very different kind of runner: he’s 28 years old, has won his last two World majors in commanding form across two different race styles, and in a relatively wide-open year for the world’s top male marathoner, he’s now inarguably part of the conversation. A few days ago, he was an “in the mix” kind of guy—helped by the fact that there were no double WMM major winners on the men’s side in 2024—but now he’s the guy to beat.

Behind him, there were a number of athletes that also announced their arrivals on the global stage, most notably American Conner Mantz, who backed up his breakout start to 2025 with a 2:05:08 run for fourth place behind Tanzanian Alphonce Simbu and Kenyan Cybrian Kotut. It was both Mantz’s fastest performance by over two minutes and his highest WMM finish to date, falling just four seconds short of the podium and ten seconds behind Ryan Hall’s all-conditions U.S. best from the same course in 2011. Now, we no longer have to speculate that Mantz is probably a 2:05 guy based on comparable performances; he’s proven it definitively.

It was a great day for BYU alumni across the board as former Cougars picked up three spots in the top ten, with Canadian Rory Linkletter (sixth in 2:07:02) and Clayton Young (seventh in 2:07:04) both clocking career-high finishes and lifetime-best times. Linkletter’s previous best finish at Boston was 33rd in 2021, so it’s gotta feel good to jump a fair few spots. And one spot ahead of them, two-time World 5000m champ Muktar Edris showed he’s going to be just as hard to beat on the roads as the track, as his marathon debut ended with an impressive 2:05:59, fifth-place finish.

On the women’s side, the race opened up at a crawl over the first few miles but didn’t stay that way for long. By 10 kilometers the leaders were running sub-2:16 pace and the eventual top five hit halfway in 1:08:46. Irene Cheptai, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, and Amane Beriso have all clocked sub-2:18 performances in the past, but this was unfamiliar territory for last year’s 1-2, Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi, whose penchant for championship-style racing and prowess over hilly courses like Boston and NYC meant that they entered the race with personal bests more than five minutes slower than the top seeds’. But experience and talent can’t always be captured by past times alone, and Lokedi and Obiri shook off all other competitors one by one through the Newton hills until, by mile 22, only Yehualaw remained with the duo.

Lokedi then put on a master-class that also served as a taste of Obiri’s own medicine, tightening the screws from 35k onward and simply running the kick out of her rival’s legs. Obiri didn’t truly cave until the final mile, when Lokedi split 5:05 to Obiri’s 5:23, and after finishing behind her fellow Kenyan in their last five straight matchups, Lokedi got back on top of the podium with her second WMM win in a blazing 2:17:22 course record.

She and Obiri (2:17:41) now have PBs that reflect closer to their all-out capability, and while Lokedi has never finished outside the top ten in a marathon, her victory in Boston feels like the strongest vindication yet that her stunning 2022 debut in New York was no fluke. Obiri still may be one of the best, if not the best, marathoner in the world, but Lokedi’s name deserves mention in the same breath as Olympic champ Sifan Hassan, world record holder Ruth Chepngetich, and the handful of fellow world-beaters with legitimate claims to world #1.

American performances in Boston shook out as a bit of a mixed bag, as pre-race contenders like Emma Bates (13th in 2:25:10), Dakotah Popehn (16th in 2:26:09), Sara Hall (18th in 2:26:32), and Keira D’Amato (35th in 2:35:57) didn’t have the days that they were hoping for. One of the more impressive showings was 41-year-old Des Linden claiming top Master honors in 17th overall in 2:26:16, her fastest marathon in eight years but also her final Boston as a professional, which she announced shortly before the race. But the breakout performers of the day were Jess McClain and Annie Frisbie, finishing seventh (2:22:43) and eighth (2:23:21), respectively, in new PBs.

McClain has received a lot of well-deserved press over the last year or so after her surprise fourth-place finish at last year’s Olympic Trials, continuing a strong start to her marathoning career after some time away from the sport in 2020 and 2021. After finishing eighth place in NYC last fall and now seventh in Boston this spring, she’s proven that she can compete against international competition as well as domestic.

For even relatively dialed-in marathon fans, Frisbie and men’s tenth-placer Ryan Ford were likely the most surprising names to pop up in the top ten. Frisbie stayed with the leaders early and was hanging onto top American honors until the last two miles, when McClain overtook her. But Frisbie still got a huge improvement on her previous personal best (2:26:18), which came from her 2021 debut in New York City where she finished seventh. If she pops up in the top ten of WMMs a few more times, it’ll become increasingly foolish to ever count her out of top American contention.

Ford, a ZAP Endurance runner who competed collegiately for University of Tennessee-Martin and Iowa State, finished 11th in his marathon debut in New York last fall, but moving one place and three minutes up in Boston puts him in much more rarified air. His 2:08:00 slots him tenth on the U.S. all-conditions list as well, and like Matt Richtman before him, he seems to be proving that a decorated NCAA track career is less and less of a prerequisite for marathon success. Ford and Frisbie haven’t quite solidified their presence on the scene like Mantz or McClain yet, but they’re putting up the kind of results that generally suggest they’re nearing the crest of a wave of marathoning greatness.

This year’s Boston Marathon wasn’t full of crazy flukes or adding padding to GOAT resumes, but instead it offered something a bit more interesting: clear signs of change in the global marathoning scene, where stars who’d previously shown flashes of brilliance sent a loud and clear message that they’re in it for the long run (pun intended). Coming out of a year with a lot of parity at the top of the marathoning ranks, the event is more exciting than ever in 2025 for one main reason: anyone can win, and anyone can lose. And the next time the big winners out of Boston toe the start line of a major marathon, they’ll be the ones everyone else wants to beat.

What We’re Watching For At The Diamond League Season Opener 💎

With Grand Slam Track and its field-eventless focus firing the first shot of the professional outdoor season, it’s fitting that the first installment of the 2025 Diamond League is heavy on the field events. Many of the world’s most prominent jumpers, throwers, and vaulters will descend on Xiamen, China, for this Saturday’s meet. 

You want Mondo Duplantis? Assuming you’ve got an active Flotrack subscription… you got Mondo! You want loaded women’s high jump, shot put, and discus fields? You got ‘em—and we’ll dive in a bit deeper in a moment on those. The meet organizers even pulled out all the stops for the men’s horizontal jumps, where there’s considerable depth across both events, but no clear favorite in either.

The field events may get more of the shine in Xiamen, but there’s still plenty to tune in for taking place on the oval. Grant Holloway looks to lead an American sweep of the podium in the 110m hurdles. Soufiane El Bakkali, the reigning World and Olympic champ in the steeplechase, will open up his 2025 campaign with his signature event. And we’ll be treated to the return of Karsten Warholm, following an injury sustained in the aftermath of his 100m duel with Duplantis last summer. He will race the off-distance 300m hurdles. 

Early season DL meets may not always produce the most jaw-dropping metrics, but they’re international events that attract a range of the world’s finest athletes. And they’re essential for establishing the narratives that will follow these athletes through the entirety of the outdoor season. With that said, here are a handful of emergent storylines we’ll be keeping our eyes on as the action gets underway in Xiamen:

Women’s high jump: A rematch of champions

The Diamond League portion of this meeting opens up with the high jump, and with apologies for the following quip, that’s very apt… as the bar will be set high both literally and figuratively. Three of the four podium finishers from Paris are slated to jump: Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh, silver medalist Nicola Olyslagers, and co-bronze medalist Eleanor Patterson. Olyslagers and Patterson both already squared off outdoors. Olyslagers (2.01m) got the better of Patterson (1.97m) in that meeting, as well as at World Indoors, where the compatriots struck gold and silver. Meanwhile, Mahuchikh will be making her 2025 outdoor debut, following an indoor season where she cleared 2.01m but only managed a bronze medal at World Indoors. 

In all likelihood, this trio (give or take a fourth athlete in the event of another tie) will stand atop the podium in Tokyo this September, so this matchup is all about making a statement. Mahuchikh has been on a hot streak outdoors but has missed gold at the last two indoor championships. She’ll want to send a clear message that Nanjing was a fluke. Both Aussies undoubtedly want to register another win against their Ukrainian rival—and each other—to kick off the season with the knowledge that they have the goods to claim gold at its conclusion.

Men’s 100m: Tebogo drops down in distance

The field events will get a lot of shine in Xiamen, but there’s plenty of action to take in on the track as well. Akani Simbine, two-time Olympic fourth-placer in the 100m for South Africa, is hot out of the gate, having already run a world leading 9.90. Yet it’s hard to consider Simbine the clear favorite when Letsile Tebogo will be sharing a starting line. Tebogo’s only registered one 100m race this year, an unimpressive 10.55. He placed sixth in Paris but won World silver in 2023, so he can be a bit hit or miss in the shortest sprint event. In reality, his strength is his strength, and he’s more of a 200m specialist with the ability to flex up to the 400m. But whether he likes it or not, Tebogo is on the short list of track and field stars who could be considered the face of the sport. So when he lines up for a race of any real consequence, regardless of the distance, the pressure will be on him to deliver.

Looking to play the role of spoiler will be… well, basically the entire field, but with preference given to athletes possessing strong starts. (This early in the season, sharpness might not be universal.) Perhaps the biggest threat for an African victory will come in the form of Christian Coleman, a consistent performer who tends to run well at these early season Diamond League meets, but only finished fourth in 10.06 at the Tom Jones Invitational last weekend. The only man in the field without a sub-10-second clocking to his name is Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy (10.00 PB), but he’s coming off a World Indoors silver at 60m and surely wants to insert his name into the global short sprint conversation.

Women’s shot put: All the world’s best collide

If world rankings are something you give a lot of weight to, then strap in for a battle between the women ranked 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 13 in the world. The top seven finishers from World Indoors four weeks ago and about 1,000km away are locking horns again, led up front by the impressive 20m+ podium of Sarah Mitton, Jessica Schilder and Chase Jackson. None of the medal-winning trio have opened their outdoor seasons yet, meaning they’re launching themselves directly back into the fire. Other notable names on the entry list include former Oregon Duck Jaida Ross making her professional debut after signing with Nike last week and Olympic silver medalist Maddison-Lee Wesche coming off a frustrating 15th-place finish in Nanjing. Finally, it would be a sin to exclude the home nation duo of Gong Lijiao and Song Jiayuan. A 19.04m SB and fifth-place finish at World Indoors may be signs of the 36-year-old Gong finally losing a couple ticks off her fastball, but she downed a similarly stacked field at this venue last April. 

Women’s discus: We’re not in Ramona anymore

If anyone not in this competition lands on the podium in Tokyo, it’d be a pretty significant upset. Several women are making the trek to Xiamen fresh off big days in the discus mecca that is Ramona, headed up by the American duo of Valarie Allman and Lagi Tausaga-Collins. Allman threw 73.52m two weeks ago, the best mark by a woman since before Kyle Merber was born, but her and coach Zeb Sion have made it clear they aren’t necessarily expecting to throw that far on the circuit. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be expecting any big throws out of Allman though, as she won this meet last year with a pair of 69.80m and 69.73m bombs. For Tausaga-Collins, her 70.72m PB in Oklahoma was an emphatic “I’m back” statement after a foul-filled, frustrating 2024 campaign for the defending World champ. Her results sheets so far might still have a few more Xs than she’d hoped for, but the distances have been there and she’s been able to handle in-competition adversity. Feng Bin and Sandra Elkasević, the other members of the Paris podium behind Allman, will be opening their seasons on Saturday.

Women’s 1000m: A sign of things to come?

Fair or not, following that New York Times piece about the possibility of a woman breaking the four-minute barrier in the mile, Faith Kipyegon has become the face of that concept. Kipyegon, the mile (4:07.64) and 1500m (3:49.04) world record holder, has yet to race in 2025, but is the headliner for the 1000m in Xiamen. And well… your brain is probably already lurching in the direction of “let’s see if she’s gonna open her season by attempting to run sub-four pace for a shorter distance.” Kipyegon’s 1000m PB is 2:29.15—a few milliseconds behind the clip needed to break four. Again… it’s unfair to assess Kipyegon’s season opener by this benchmark, but given that the media has volunteered her for this unenviable role (and here we are propagating it) that’s where we are. 

The positive spin is that a sub-two-hour marathon seemed preposterous until the sport—along with a series of incredibly well funded time trials—made it happen. And while the first sub-two ‘thon wasn’t record eligible, we have seen a legitimate 2:00:35, and it’s hard not to think that wasn’t at least partially the result of the event’s best competitors collectively acknowledging 1:59:59 as possible.

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How Does April Racing Fit Into The Professional Track Season? 🌤️

While we just rattled off 1,300+ words about all the exciting plotlines we’ll be keeping tabs on throughout this weekend’s Diamond League season premiere, the fact remains that it’s still April. And not every professional track and field athlete out there is keen to throttle the engine in their primary event with a global championship set for September. 

Sure, if you’re, say, a 100m specialist, there’s probably some value in lining up early and often in your literal and proverbial lane. You can iron out the kinks, get comfortable with your start, and measure your progress as your sharpness comes around over the course of a long season. But track is just as much a mental game as a physical one, and crossing the line only to be greeted by a higher-than-hoped-for number displayed across the unforgiving clock? Well, that can strike quite the blow to your confidence—something you can’t afford to lack in this business.

But there’s a rather elegant solution employed by many of the world’s more established athletes in the early going of the season: entering a race longer, shorter, or otherwise separate from your signature event. You take the heat off (generally), in terms of expectations. You get to work on—or test— your strength in the most nebulous sense of the phrase. And if it goes really well, you get to hint that maybe you’ll pursue that new event more seriously. No matter what, there’s a positive to be spun out of it, as you’ll see from the following examples.

In the case of Fred Kerley, an NCAA champion over 400m, a return to the full lap after two-plus years of exclusively racing 200m and down went about as well as could be expected for an athlete with his unique pedigree. Kerley won the elite section at the Mt. SAC Relays in a very respectable 44.73. Fast enough to stake a claim to a 4 x 400m team spot at Worlds? Probably not. But quick enough to remind everyone that he could be on that squad if he shifted his focus back to the 400m full-time. Absolutely. With one Grand Slam Track double behind him and three more on the horizon, there’s plenty to like about Kerley’s decision to sprinkle in some over-distance racing. He’s going to get sharp with all those 100m-200m doubles, not to mention training. This was likely a good hard effort designed to harden the legs in preparation for that, plus rounds at USAs and Worlds.

Under similar 400m circumstances on the opposite coast, Erriyon Knighton and Noah Lyles experienced drastically different outcomes. Two of the fastest men on the planet over 200m finished near the back of their respective heats at a the Tom Jones Memorial in Florida (45.87 for Lyles, 46.26 for Knighton), and reminded us not to take for granted that the jump up to 400m is always an easy one, even for insanely accomplished sprinters. Knighton keeps a low profile, so little attention was given to this performance. Lyles, on the other hand… having an off-day at an off-distance could be a different beast for him. That’s because Lyles has made very public his desire to carry the baton for Team USA in the 4 x 400m. That’s looking less likely now, but no sane fan is worried about Lyles’s outlook over 100m or 200m after one middling 400m showing.

In the women’s race, Dina Asher-Smith continued her step up in distance and Anna Cockrell knocked the hurdles off the track, with Asher-Smith besting Cockrell 52.30 to 52.44. For someone like Asher-Smith, sticking with the 400m early is probably a double benefit: less potential for injury than the more explosive events, a serious concern for the injury-prone Brit, and good preparation for a busy championship schedule that could easily include two individual events and two relays. For Cockrell, it’s all about trying to separately hone every element of her specialty race to bring her steps closer to the unstoppable Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

Athing Mu-Nikolayev isn’t a sprinter, despite the 400m NCAA title she won in 2021. She’s an 800m specialist. Among the best ever. She just happens to be talented enough to step down and clean up in the 400m, too. (In fact, her coach, Bobby Kersee, might actually view Mu-Nikolayev as more of an 800m/1500m runner, if his insistence on her racing the metric mile at USAs in 2023 is any indication.) But regardless of her definition, it’s nevertheless strange that she “raced” 3000m of a 5000m at Mt. SAC in a hair over 9:40, we want to discuss what we can take away from that showing. The problem is—or maybe if you’re Mu-Nikolayev, the benefit—we didn’t learn much. This should’ve been an easy effort for her, that happened to take place largely in lane two of a race. The rationale behind this session was allegedly to give Mu-Nikolayev practice running on tired legs in a crowded race setting. Since her difficulty racing in a pack is really the only knock against Mu-​​Nikolayev as an athlete, we’ll say it’s nice to know it’s something she’s working on, and hopefully we’ll see more of her this outdoor season doing what we’re more accustomed to: staying on her feet over 800m and beating the field to the line by several meters.

But for every point comes a counterpoint, and for some, April is simply about sending a message. For Julien Alfred and her wind-legal 21.88 200m at Tom Jones, the message is that she’s a serious threat for the double gold she narrowly missed in Paris. For Trey Cunningham, it’s about showing Grant Holloway he can’t get too comfy on top, with Cunningham besting Holloway 13.09 to 13.18 in the 110m hurdles. And for 400m hurdler Chris Robinson, his 44.15 for a flat lap of the oval put himself closer to the relay pool than Lyles. That’s also particularly impressive given Robinson’s 45.54 at Grand Slam a few short weeks ago was also a personal best.

And last but certainly not least, April marked the return of someone we weren’t necessarily expecting to see so early on the circuit. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce enjoyed a fine season opener at Kingston National Stadium’s Velocity Fest #17, running 10.94 with a +3.1m/s tailwind, making it just outside of a wind-legal performance. (Side note: it’s funny to watch this video of Usain Bolt and remember that both Bolt and SAFP are 38 years old.) SAFP is not known for racing just for the heck of it, and given her injury-shortened 2024 season, showing up in what seems like fighting shape in April felt like Fraser-Pryce was recreating a Monty Python classic, reminding us she’s not dead yet.

Ultimately, this strange interlude in the pro track and field schedule is all about making your year work for you. If you’re fit, head to China or Kingston and pick up a paycheck. If you’ve got weaknesses, now is the time to turn them into strengths. And if you came out of hibernation with a head full of steam, it’s time to let the world know. But don’t let these few critical weekends go to waste.

More News From The Track And Field World 📰

– Jane Hedengren gets top bullet point mention this week for her stellar performance in the 5000m at Bryan Clay. The high school senior went 14:57.93, shaving nearly 30 seconds off of the old outdoor HS record. For added context, Parker Valby only became the first NCAA athlete to break 15 minutes in 2023.

– In other Bryan Clay news: Habtom Samuel of New Mexico notched the NCAA outdoor 5000m record in 13:05.87; Geoffrey Kirwa of Louisville’s 8:13.89 clocking in the steeplechase and New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei’s 14:52.45 in the 5000m were each good for a new #2 all-time NCAA mark; and Washington’s Chloe Foerster ran 4:05.75, good for #5 all-time in the 1500m.

– Alabama’s Doris Lemngole lowered her own steeplechase NCAA record to 9:10.13 at the Wake Forest Invitational. While the professional steeple season hasn’t really gotten underway yet, that’s also the fastest time in the world so far in 2025.

– While neither Ruth Chepngetich nor Peres Jepchirchir nor Kenenisa Bekele are running the London Marathon after all, Sunday’s race will still feature a hugely stacked field featuring both Olympic champions, Sifan Hassan and Tamirat Tola, as well as former world record holder Eliud Kipchoge and current half marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo.

– Before Boston weekend got fully underway, Eritrean Dawit Seare (13:33) and Ethiopian Gela Hambese (14:53) won the BAA 5K, which also featured a notable 14:57 third place run from Taylor Roe. A few blocks west, Casey Comber defended his title in the BAA Invitational Mile in 4:07 and Dorcus Ewoi claimed the women’s title in 4:43.

– Mondo Duplantis received the prestigious Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award, becoming just the second track and athlete to claim the worldwide honor in the awards’ 25-year history after Usain Bolt.

– Guinness World Records set at this year’s Boston Marathon included Jordan Maddocks, who became the fastest marathoner in the world dressed as a fruit with his banana-suit 2:33:19, and Sean McIntyre, who ran 2:47:06 dressed as a leprechaun.

– According to reporting by the Wall Street Journal’s Rachel Bachman, USATF’s financial situation is currently under “outside review.”

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