Lemi Berhanu Hayle, of Ethiopia, breaks the tape to win the 120th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 18, 2016, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
BOSTON (AP) — The Latest on Monday’s 120th running of the Boston Marathon (all times local):
12:20 p.m.
Lemi Berhanu Hayle of Ethiopia has won the Boston Marathon in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 12 minutes, 45 seconds.
The 21-year-old pulled away from defending champion Lelisa Desisa as they crossed the Mass Pike heading into Kenmore Square. He won by 47 seconds.
The victory completed Ethiopia’s first-ever sweep of the men’s and women’s races in Boston.
It was Hayle’s first major marathon victory. He has run four smaller marathons since 2014, winning three and finishing second in Dubai in January.
Desisa finished 47 seconds back, in second place, and Ethiopian Yemane Adhane Tsegay was third to complete a sweep of the podium.
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Noon
Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia has won the women’s race at the Boston Marathon.
The 29-year-old, two-time Chicago Marathon winner came from 37 seconds behind with less than five miles to go and passed fellow Ethiopian Tirfi Tsegaye with two miles left.
Baysa finished in an unofficial time of 2 hours, 29 minutes, 19 seconds.
Tsegaye was 44 seconds back.
Defending women’s champion Carolina Rotich dropped out in the first five miles.
Ethiopia went 1-2-3 in the women’s race.
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11:05 a.m.
Tatyana McFadden has won the women’s wheelchair race at the Boston Marathon.
It was her fourth victory in a row.
McFadden completed the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Copley Square in an unofficial time of 1 hour, 42 minutes, 15 seconds.
She was born in Russia and adopted by an American woman as a small child.
The 26-year-old McFadden lives in Clarksville, Maryland.
She was wearing a singlet honoring Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy killed in the 2013 finish line bombings.
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11 a.m.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug has won his second straight men’s wheelchair title at the Boston Marathon.
Hug crossed the finish line in 1 hour, 24 minutes and 1 second, which was just 5:36 off the course and world record. The 30-year-old edged second place Ernst Van Dyk, of South Africa, and Australian Kurt Fearnley, who was third.
The top three finished within a second of each other. Hug overtook the 10-time champion Van Dyk in the final turn off Boylston Street and outsprinted Van Dyk and Fearnley to the line.
Hug’s time was nearly five minutes faster than his 2015 win.
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10 a.m.
And they’re off. The elite men and the first of four waves of runners have kicked off the 120th Boston Marathon.
Security is tight for Monday’s race — the third since a pair of bombings killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 others at the finish line in 2013.
Topping the men’s field are Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa, who won in 2015 and 2013, and Kenyan Wesley Korir, the 2012 champion.
Weather could play a factor as the 26.2-mile race unfolds. By midmorning, it had already hit 63 degrees in Boston, though forecasters said a sea breeze later in the day could provide slightly cooler conditions for the 30,000 competitors.
Racers also were dealing with a headwind in the first few miles.
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9:35 a.m.
The elite women’s race is underway at the 120th Boston Marathon, diminished by the absence of some top athletes resting up for the Rio Olympics.
Defending champion Caroline Rotich, of Kenya, leads the women’s field. Tiki Gelana, the 2012 Olympics gold medalist, and fellow Ethiopian Buzunesh Deba also are in the hunt.
The top American is Neely Spence Gracey, of Spencer, Colorado, making her marathon debut Monday.
All three U.S. Olympic Team members are sitting out Boston. They include Desi Linden, who was fourth last year, and Shalane Flanagan, who was ninth.
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9:10 a.m.
Two people who lost limbs in the 2013 bombings at the Boston Marathon finish line are running this year’s race.
Adrianne Haslet and Patrick Downes both lost legs in the attacks. Both are on their way from Hopkinton to Boston as part of the mobility-impaired division in Monday’s 120th running of the venerable marathon.
Haslet is a professional ballroom dancer running to raise money and awareness for Limbs for Life, a charity that provides expensive prostheses to low-income amputees.
Both are running on special carbon-fiber blades.
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8:55 a.m.
The Boston Marathon is officially underway with the mobility-impaired athletes setting off.
About 50 participants with visual impairments and other disabilities are in Monday’s race. They’re being guided by able-bodied runners accompanying them along the 26.2-mile course.
The more competitive push rim wheelchair division sets off at 9:17 a.m., and the elite women go off at 9:32 a.m.
The elite men and the first of four waves of runners follow at 10 a.m.
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8:30 a.m.
With the top American marathoners resting for the Rio Olympics, Neely Spence Gracey could be the best U.S. hope for a podium finish in Boston on Monday.
Gracey, 26, of Superior, Colorado, is an eight-time NCAA Division II national champion who will be making her marathon debut.
But in a way, she has been a marathoner all her life.
Gracey is the daughter of 1991 world championship bronze medalist Steve Spence. Her father finished 19th — the No. 2 American overall — in the 1989 Boston Marathon, and Gracey was born on Patriots’ Day in 1990 while her father was running the race.
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30,000 runners will take to the streets this morning for the 120th running of the Boston Marathon.
An estimated 1 million spectators are expected to line the 26.2 mile route from Hopkinton to Boston. Temperatures could rise to around 70 degrees for runners.
Authorities say security will be tight again this year after the recent attacks in Brussels, though officials know of no specific threat against the marathon. Three years ago, two bombs planted near the marathon finish line killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.
Defending champions Lelisa Desisa, of Ethiopia, and Caroline Rotich, of Kenya, will lead the field across the start in Hopkinton. Defending wheelchair winners Tatyana McFadden and Marcel Hug are also in this year’s field.
With the top American marathoners resting for the Rio Olympics, Neely Spence Gracey could be the best U.S. hope for a podium finish in Boston.
The 26-year-old Coloradan will be making her marathon debut, but the marathon has always been a part of her life. Her father, Steve Spence, was a bronze medalist at the 1991 world championships.
Neely was born while her father was running Boston in 1990.
The marathon is one of many Patriots’ Day traditions in the Boston area. Battle re-enactments will be held Monday morning on the Lexington Green and at the Old North Bridge in Concord. The Red Sox play their annual Patriots’ Day game against the Blue Jays at 11 am, the only morning start time in Major League Baseball.
The annual lantern lightning at the Old North Church in Boston’s North End was held Sunday night.
Barnstable High School will host a race of its own today. The town’s recreation department is holding a Patriots Day race for kids, pre-school through 7th grade.
The event is broken down into 3 divisions, pre-schoolers will run a quarter of a mile, kindergarteners through 3rd graders will run a mile, with 4th-7th graders running a mile and a half.
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