Boston Marathon 2024 Women's Elite (F18-39): Obiri Defends at Copley Square

• Hellen Obiri wins in 2:22:37, holding off Sharon Lokedi by just 8 seconds in a race that came down to the final miles of the point-to-point Hopkinton-to-Boston course.
• Buze Diriba and Senbere Teferi both finished in 2:24:04 — separated by the timing mats alone, with Diriba taking 3rd and Teferi 4th.
• Sharon Lokedi's surge was the race's defining move, climbing from 13th among women at the halfway point all the way to 2nd by the finish, running the 15K–20K stretch faster than anyone in the women's field except Obiri.
• 4,660 women aged 18–39 finished this 128th Boston Marathon, making the elite battle just the sharpest edge of a massive field.

Hellen Obiri came in as the defending champion — she won here in 2023 in 2:21:38 — and she ran like it. She held the lead from the gun, briefly ceded it around the Newton Hills stretch (slipping to 2nd among women at the 20K mark), then retook the front and never let go. Her 5:26/mi average held up through Heartbreak Hill and beyond, and she sealed the win with the fastest women's split on the 23-to-24-mile segment — precisely where races are won and lost on this course. Her 2:22:37 is 59 seconds slower than her 2023 victory, but the win is the win.

What made this race genuinely dramatic was Lokedi's charge. She was 13th among women at the halfway mark, then posted the 2nd-fastest women's split from 15K to 20K to claw her way into contention. By the time the field hit the final miles, she had surged all the way to 2nd — but Obiri had already done the damage with that punishing late split, and the 8-second gap at the tape reflected a gap Lokedi couldn't quite close.

The fight for 3rd was even tighter. Diriba had been moving steadily — she ran the 2nd-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K and tracked her way into the top five. Teferi, meanwhile, owned the fastest women's split from mile 21 to the 35K mark, a late surge that vaulted her from 6th to 5th among women at that stage. In the end, both crossed in 2:24:04, with Diriba edging Teferi by the thinnest of margins. Mary Ngugi rounded out the top five in 2:24:24, having run the fastest women's split from 20K to the half — a strong early move that kept her in the hunt all afternoon.

Emma Bates was the top American finisher in 11th at 2:27:14, while Jenny Simpson — the celebrated track star — showed her marathon mettle with a 2:31:39 for 15th.