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Men's champion Hayle won the 2016 marathon in a tactical 2
hours, 12 minutes and 44 seconds, while women's title holder
Baysa won in 2:29:19.
The 121st Boston Marathon will see four-time Olympian Meb
Keflezighi make his farewell performance. Keflezighi became the
first American to win the Boston Marathon in more than three
decades in 2014 with a time of 2:08:37.
Security will be high along the course, that begins in
Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and passes through Boston's suburbs to
the finish line on Boylston Street, where a pair of ethnic
Chechen brothers in 2013 set off two homemade bombs, killing
three people and injuring more than 200.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to pack the streets for
Boston's largest sporting event, held on the Patriots Day
holiday, which commemorates the start of the American
Revolution.
Other top men's contenders include Kenya's Emmanuel Mutai, who
won the 2011 London marathon, Ethiopia's Yemane Tsegay, who
finished third in Boston in 2016, with the top American
contender Galen Rupp of Portland, Oregon, fresh off a bronze in
the Olympic marathon in Rio de Janeiro.
In the women's competition, runners to watch include Kenya's
Gladys Cherono, who won the 2015 Berlin Marathon, and Edna
Kiplagat, who finished second in Chicago last year.
Desiree Linden brings in the fastest time of any of the American
women, with her 2:22:38 personal record set when she finished
second in Boston in 2011.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; editing by Richard Lough)
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