Lelisa Desisa to defend Boston Marathon men’s title
Boston – Defending champion Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, is ready to defend the men’s title when the race takes place here on Monday.
Desisa, who was a winner here in 2013 and 2015, is going for his third win. Should that happen, Desisa will have his name engraved in the history book of the marathon marathon as one of the greatest athletes.
Other notable Ethiopian athletes to watch out are:
Yemane Tsegay, whose greatest achievement at the Boston Marathon, was a second place finish last year, collected silver at the World Championships marathon in Beijing last summer and was a winner in Ottawa, Daegu, Eindhoven, Taipei, and Otsu (Lake Biwa).
Tsegaye Mekonnen, who run 2:04:32 in Dubai in 2014, Mekonnen, has only five marathon starts on his record, but has twice run under 2:05. Both of those marks came in Dubai, where Mekonnen has finished first (in 2014) and third (this January); in 2014 he came back to finish fifth in London. His performance in Boston may depend on his ability to recover after Dubai and build on his fitness; Boston will also be Mekonnen’s first major race on a course with significant hills.
Joining Mekonnen, another member of the sub-2:05 club is also another Dubai victor, Lemi Berhanu. Hayle doubled back from winning Dubai in January 2015 to add another win in Warsaw that April; he followed that up four months later with a 15th-place finish at the World Championships in Beijing. This year he was second in Dubai notably, ahead of Mekonnen.
source: IAAF.org
