Former Kansas Jayhawks distance runner Lokedi wins 2nd straight Boston Marathon
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- Sharon Lokedi won the Boston Marathon for a second straight year.
- Lokedi finished Monday’s Boston Marathon in 2 hours 18 minutes and 51 seconds.
- The KU alum has three World Marathon major podiums, including a 2022 New York victory.
The Boston Marathon has become Sharon Lokedi’s race.
The University of Kansas alum was the first woman to cross the finish line on Monday in the world-renowned distance race. It is the Kenyan runner’s second straight win at the Boston Marathon.
Lokedi set a new course record in 2025, posting a time of 2 hours, 17.4 seconds. She came close to that mark in Monday’s win, finishing in 2:18.51.
She is the second Kenyan woman to win the race two years in a row; Olympic silver medallist Hellen Obiri won in 2023 and 2024. Since 2000, a Kenyan has won the event 19 times.
Kenyan countryman John Korir won the 2026 men’s Boston Marathon title in a course-record time of 2:01:52 — like Lokedi, he defended his title from 2025 on Monday.
Lokedi’s back-to-back Boston Marathon victories come after a runner-up finish in 2024 — the same year she finished fourth in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Lokedi’s Boston Marathon victory is her third major world marathon win: she won the 2022 New York City Marathon after finishing third there in 2023.
Lokedi, 32, is a historic figure in the Jayhawks’ cross country and track and field programs after thriving in Lawrence from 2015-19. She was the 2016 and 2017 Big 12 cross country champion and women’s runner of the year and still holds five KU school records — in the 3,000 meters, indoor and outdoor 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and as part of the distance medley relay team.
She won 12 Big 12 championships and was a 10-time first-team All-America selection between cross country, indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.
