Kenya’s Emmanuel Saina wins Honolulu Marathon; Canada’s Lanni Marchant takes women’s race

Emmanuel Saina of Kenya won the men’s race of the Honolulu Marathon today in a time of two hours, 14 minutes, 32 seconds.

Lanni Marchant of Canada was first in the women’s race, finishing in 2:41.25.

Both finished way ahead of their competition.

Around 9,000 total entrants started either the 26.2 mile marathon or the Start to Park 10K race this morning. The number is less than half of the marathon’s usual size, but the coronavirus that forced the cancellation of last year’s event also factored into a smaller field for this year. Normally thousands of entrants come from Japan, but only a few hundred did this year, race officials said.

John Benner, a botanist from Boston who now lives on Hawaii Island, won the Kalakaua Merrie Mile on Saturday, and was second in the marathon today in 2:35.33 — an unheard of double achievement. Another Big Island resident, Billy Barnett of Volcano, was third in 2:36:48.

Grace Oetting of Nashville was runner-up in the women’s race in 2:52:48 and Sarah Guhl of Colorado was third in 2:56:52. Kona’s Bree Wee was fourth in 3:01:31.

Tyler Byers of Spokane, Wash., won the men’s wheelchair division in 1:42:57, holding off Valera Jacob Allen. Chelsea Stein won the women’s division in 2:33:00. Allen and Stein are members of the University of Arizona’s adaptive sports program.

Jerold Chun and Gary Dill continued their streak of completing every Honolulu Marathon. Chun, a California resident, finished in 6:07:26. Dill, a Honolulu resident, finished in 8:19:32. The first marathon was held in 1973.