Kenyan Lameck Aguta won the 101st Boston Marathon Monday, pulling away from countryman Joseph Kamau with a mile to go and finishing in 2 hours, 10 minutes, 33 seconds.
Ethiopia’s Fatuma Roba won the women’s race in an unofficial time of 2:26:24 to upset three-time defending champion Uta Pippig. The Olympic champion, who was running in Boston for the first time, was the first women’s winner from Africa.
South Africans Elana Meyer and Colleen De Reuck finished second and third — Meyer 44 seconds back and De Reuck 98 seconds behind Roba.
It was the seventh consecutive Boston men’s victory for Kenya, though not quite the top five sweep from last year. Kamau was 11 seconds behind and 14 seconds ahead of third-place finisher Dionicio Ceron of Mexico.
Mexico’s German Silva bounced back from an early fall to finish fourth, and defending champion Moses Tanui was fifth.
Germany’s Pippig, who overcame diarrhea and menstrual cramps to win last year, was fourth among women runners.
A total of 10,524 runners were competing for top prizes of $75,000 in each of the men’s and women’s divisions, part of a total purse of $500,000.
