Boston 2025 Women's Race: Lokedi Storms the Final Miles to Claim Copley Square

• Sharon Lokedi wins in 2:17:22, averaging 5:14/mi — running down a lead pack that had held Hellen Obiri in front through the first 25 kilometers.
• Obiri finishes 2nd in 2:17:41, 19 seconds back, having posted the fastest women's split from the half to 25K — the two-time defending champion led the race at every checkpoint until the very last.
• Yalemzerf Yehualaw rounds out the podium in 2:18:06, the fastest women's split from mile 21 to 35K confirming she was still surging late — but the gap to Lokedi was already sealed.
• A 4:10 gap separates 3rd from 4th: Irine Cheptai (4th, 2:21:32) and Amane Beriso (5th, 2:21:58) ran their own compelling race behind the front trio.

For most of the 129th Boston Marathon, this looked like Hellen Obiri's race to lose. The two-time defending champion — who won here in both 2023 and 2024 — sat at the front of the women's field from the opening checkpoint through 25 kilometers, running the fastest women's split on that half-to-25K stretch. At the halfway point, Yalemzerf Yehualaw was glued to her shoulder in 2nd, while Sharon Lokedi, lurking as far back as 12th early on, had already worked her way up to 3rd. The race was tightly coiled.

The decisive move came in the final miles. Lokedi, who had posted the fastest women's split from 15K to 20K, shifted gears when it mattered most. By the last checkpoint, she had moved from 2nd to 1st, and Obiri — who had led every prior split — could not respond. The margin at the tape was 19 seconds: 2:17:22 to 2:17:41. Those are close finish times, but Lokedi ran the closing stretch faster, and that is what the race turned on. Yehualaw, who owned the fastest women's split from mile 21 to 35K, held 3rd in 2:18:06 — a strong finish that nonetheless left her 44 seconds behind the winner.

Behind the podium, Cheptai (4th, 2:21:32) and Beriso (5th, 2:21:58) were separated by just 26 seconds after 26.2 miles, with Beriso having run the second-fastest women's split from the half to 25K before fading slightly relative to Cheptai's closing effort. Calli Thackery (6th, 2:22:38) and Jess McClain (7th, 2:22:43) were separated by five seconds, while Americans Annie Frisbie (8th, 2:23:21) and Emma Bates (13th, 2:25:10) were among the notable U.S. performers. Desiree Linden, the 2018 Boston champion, crossed in 17th at 2:26:19 — still running 5:35/mi across this notoriously demanding point-to-point course at 50°F on Patriots' Day.