Hellen Obiri picks first ever marathon win as she conquers Boston

At her first time of asking on this course, Hellen Obiri is the new Boston Marathon champion after cutting the tape in 2:21:38.

Obiri finished ahead of Ethiopia's Beriso Amane and Kenyan-turned-Israeli Lornah Salpeter who came second and third, stopping the clock at 2:21:50 and 2:21:57 respectively.

The track sensei-turned-marathoner was a late inclusion on the list, coming in after Sheila Chepkirui withdrew from the race.

The two-time world champion over 5,000m surged forward over the last mile to pull away from a pack of four before seeing off the challenge of Ethiopia's Beriso.

The 33-year-old has spent most of her career racing over shorter distances, winning two world championship gold medals in 2017 and 2019 over 5,000m, as well as silvers over the same distance at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.

Obiri, who only raced a marathon for the first time in New York last November where she placed sixth, kept her composure in a hard-fought race to win.

It was a remarkable performance by Obiri, who only confirmed her participation in Boston last month following urging by her coach.

"First of all I didn't want to come because my heart was somewhere else, but the coach told me 'My heart says you should go for Boston,'" Obiri said afterwards.

"I said no, because it's a strong field. But he said, 'You've trained well, something tells me go to Boston.' I'm very happy because it's a surprise to me. But I was feeling like my body was ready, and everything was ready."

Obiri bided her time before hitting the front with around half a mile to go, pumping her arms and driving her legs through the rain to drop the chasing pack.

"The coach told me that marathons are about patience, patience, patience until the last minute," Obiri said. "So I just tried to be patient."