Boston, April 19: Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya on April 18 won the Boston Marathon in two hours three minutes and two seconds to record the fastest time ever taken to cover the distance. The earlier record was held by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie at Berlin in 2008 where he took 2:03:59 to cover the same distance.

Gebrselassie's record was not ratified as a new record as he was helped by a tailwind on a hilly course with too much downhill from start to finish.

Moses Mosop, another Kenyan who finished second also broke Gebrselassie's record as he completed the distance in 2:03:06.

An ecstatic Mutai was quoted by Reuters as saying, "I was not coming to break the world record. For me, today was good weather. And when you are in good form and get good weather and get some colleagues who can push you, you can make it."

Kenya's Carolibe Kilel also won the women's race in 2:22:36 by outrunning USA's Desiree Davila in the last paces of the marathon. She said, "I even thought the last couple of strides there maybe there was a little more left and I just couldn't pull it off...My legs were just shot."

Mutai and Kilel each got $150,000 for their victories, and apart from that Mutai was also given a bonus for breaking the course record in the 115th running of the Boston Marathon.

OneIndia News