Kenya’s Titus Ekiru and Margaret Muriuki earn Honolulu Marathon wins
BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Renee Metivier of the USA (third place), Margaret Wanguri Muriuki of Kenya (first place) and Betsy Saina of Kenya (second place) celebrated after today’s race.
BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Wilson Chebet (second place), Edwin Kipngetich Koech (third place), and Titus Ekiru (first place), held the Kenyan flags after today’s marathon.
Titus Ekiru of Kenya broke the course record in repeating his victory of last year, winning the 47th Honolulu Marathon with a time of 2:07:59 this morning.
Wilson Chebet, also of Kenya, placed second in 2:13:13. Edwin Kipngetich Koech of Kenya placed third at 2:24:19 in his Honolulu debut.
Ekiru now owns two of the three fastest Honolulu times. The previous record of 2:08:27 was set by Lawerence Cherono two years ago.
Margaret Muriuki won the women’s race in her Honolulu Marathon debut with a non-record time of 2:31:10. She and fellow Kenyan Betsy Saina (2:31:51) were neck-and-neck for most of the 26.2 miles before Muriuki pulled away at the end of the race. Renee Metivier of Oregon was third in 2:43:17.
Humberto Baeza (2:36:26) and Polina Carlson (2:57:38) were the top Hawaii male and female resident finishers. Maui’s Matt Holton (2:42:36) and Malia Crouse (3:12:25) claimed the kama‘aina awards for runners born and residing in Hawaii.
In the wheelchair division, Masazumi Soejima won his 13th Honolulu Marathon and seventh in a row with a winning time of 1:35:37. Megan O’Neil won the women’s race in 2:48:08.
Around 19,500 people started this year’s race, with another 5,900 taking part in the “Start to Park” 10k race and antoher 2,700 participating in the Honolulu Marathon’s “Merrie Mile” run on Saturday.
