Boston Marathon 2025 LIVE: Start time, latest updates and favourites as Hellen Obiri and Sisay Lemma defend titles

Hellen Obiri will bid to become the first Kenyan woman to win three Boston Marathons in a row – and the first overall in 26 years – after picking up bronze at the Paris Games and finishing second in New York last year.

The 35-year-old was met with scepticism when she made the switch from the 5,000 metres – once her signature event with two world golds – to the endurance distance in 2022 but she has quieted the doubters and won New York two years ago.

“Defending a win is never easy, and to win the Boston Marathon twice in a row was hard, but I am happy to have done it,” Obiri said after being named in the elite field.

She will be pushed by Ethiopian Amane Beriso, the 2023 world champion and fastest in the field with a best time of 2:14:58 run in Valencia three years ago, while Desiree Linden, the last American to win the race in 2018, is among home hopes.

When Bob Hall won the Boston Marathon wheelchair category in 1975, in 2 hours, 58 minutes, his prize was a certificate of achievement, just like the runners.

50 years on, the men’s and women’s wheelchair winners will claim top prizes of $50,000 from a purse of more than $250,000, with a possible $50,000 extra for a course record. Many of the entrants will line up with paralympic and major marathon victories on their resumes and will expect to complete the course in a mere 1 hour and 15 minutes.

The evolution of the wheelchair races in Boston, which became the first of the majors to embrace the category, will be recognised today with Hall serving as the grand marshal of this year’s race. “It had nothing to do with, per se, the marathon, but it was about the inclusion,” he said. “I didn’t care if anybody got on my coattails. It was that I was bringing people along.”

The course begins in Hopkinton, a town in rural Massachusetts, with runners setting off from Main Street and heading down Route 135. They will plod through the towns of Ashland, Framingham, and Natick, before joining Route 16 shortly after Wellesley. Hanging a right on to Commonwealth Avenue (Route 30) by the fire station in Newton Lower Falls, the course continues over the Newton Hills and by Boston College, a university, before arriving at Cleveland Circle via Chestnut Hill Avenue.

The runners will then negotiate a left turn on to Beacon Street as it nears the finish, turning right on to Hereford Street, left on to Boylston Street and eventually concluding near the Boston Public Library in Copley Square in the heart of the city.

In the UK, you can watch the Boston Marathon on TNT Sports 4, with coverage beginning at 2,30pm BST and lasting until 5.15pm. A live stream will be available via discovery+.

The exact timings for this year’s event are:

• Men’s Wheelchair – 9.06 am ET (2.06pm BST)
• Women’s Wheelchair – 9.09 am ET (2.09pm BST)
• Handcycles & Duos – 9.30 am ET (2.30pm BST)
• Professional Men – 9.37 am ET (2.37pm BST)
• Professional Women – 9.47 am ET (2.47pm BST)
• Para Athletics Divisions – 9.50 am ET (2.50pm BST)
• Rolling Start Wave 1 – 10.00am ET (3pm BST)
• Rolling Start Wave 2 – 10.25am ET (3.25pm BST)
• Rolling Start Wave 3 – 10.50am ET (3.50pm BST)
• Rolling Start Wave 4 – 11.15am ET (4.15pm BST)

The 2025 edition of the Boston Marathon will again see some of the world’s best distance runners compete alongside a large mass participation field.

First held in the 19th century, a tough 26.2-mile course will test elite and recreational runners alike with 30,000 entrants again set to start.

One of six World Marathon Majors, it will be held on Patriots’ Day in the United States, as is traditional.

Defending champion Hellen Obiri returns but faces tough competition in a strong elite women’s field, while Sisay Lemma is also back to bid for another elite men’s title.