Boston set for emotional day

Rita Jeptoo and Lelisa Desisa, the 2013 Boston Marathon winners

Boston will stage an emotional marathon on Monday 12 months after a bomb attack killed three people.

Men’s and women’s champions, Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa and Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo, and last year’s wheelchair winners, Hiroyuki Yamamoto of Japan and American Tatyana McFadden, will make a poignant return to Eastern Massachusetts to defend their titles on Patriots’ Day.

A tribute was held at Boston’s Hynes Convention Center to honour the victims last Tuesday, a year to the day since the attack in which two pressure-cooker bombs were detonated near the finish line.

An estimated 264 people were wounded in the attack and the dramatic images of runners lying bloodied on the road or being helped to safety by the emergency responders or members of the public sent shock waves round the world.

Memories of the events will no doubt be in plenty of minds at the start line of the world’s oldest marathon in the town of Hopkinton.

Desisa, the World Championship silver medallist, was eager to return to show his support for the city.

“First of all, I am defending champion,” he said in the Boston Globe.

“And besides that, the situation that happened at the finish line, I hope to show that I am not scared about what happened and come back to Boston to run.”

The 24-year-old Ethiopian will face stiff opposition from the likes of Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto, who won the Tokyo and Chicago Marathons last year.

Ethiopians Gebre Gebremariam and Markos Geneti, the former twice having finished third in Boston and a former New York City Marathon champion, are also expected to be in the mix.

Jeptoo, who also won the 2013 Chicago Marathon in a personal best two hours 19minutes 57 seconds, will take on the three other top-four finishes from last year’s race in Meseret Hailu, Sharon Cherop and Shalane Flanagan.

“The message is, I was happy to come to visit Boston and to run again and defend my title,” Jeptoo said.