Boston Marathon F18-39: Lokedi Seizes the Lead Early and Never Lets Go

• Sharon Lokedi won the F18-39 age group in 2:18:51 (5:18/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the 15K–20K segment to break the race open.
• Loice Chemnung ran the fastest women's split on the 20K–Half segment on her way to 2nd in 2:19:35 — a 44-second gap back to Lokedi at the line.
• Mary Ngugi-Cooper claimed 3rd in 2:20:07, logging the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 30K–20M stretch as she moved from 7th to the podium in the race's final miles.
• Places 4 through 6 were settled within 23 seconds — Mercy Chelangat (2:20:30), Jess McClain (2:20:49), and Irine Cheptai (2:20:54) — making for one of the tightest mid-pack battles at the front of the field.

Sharon Lokedi ran a tactically aggressive race from the gun. She entered the women's field in 4th place early, then surged to the front by the 15K mark — a move backed by the fastest women's split on the 15K–20K segment — and held 1st from that point all the way to Boylston Street. At 5:18 per mile across 26.2 miles on a cool, breezy Boston morning, that kind of sustained front-running leaves very little room for error, and Lokedi gave none.

Chemnung's story is one of relentless forward motion. She was 13th among women at the first checkpoint, worked her way to 5th by 20K, then posted the fastest women's split on the 20K–Half segment to climb to 2nd — a position she held to the finish. Ngugi-Cooper was similarly patient, sitting 14th early before her blistering 30K–20M split lifted her past several rivals and onto the podium in 3rd.

The battle for 4th through 6th was a race of its own. Chelangat, who ran the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 25K–30K segment, and McClain, who matched Chemnung with the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 20K–Half, both threw their best punches — but Cheptai absorbed them and finished just five seconds behind McClain. Three athletes, 23 seconds, and no daylight between them.

Further back in a field of 5,716 finishers, Annie Frisbie (8th, 2:22:00) and Emily Sisson (9th, 2:22:39) rounded out a strong American presence, while the top 15 were all separated by under six and a half minutes — a testament to the depth and competitiveness across the F18-39 age group on Patriots' Day 2026.