Boston’s elite field set
The 130th Boston Marathon on April 20 will include all four defending champions, with open‑division titleholders Sharon Lokedi and John Korir scheduled to return and wheelchair champion Marcel Hug also entered ( ). One change: defending women’s wheelchair champion Susannah Scaroni has withdrawn from the start list, according to local coverage (nbcboston.com).
Boston’s professional field is set for April 20, with Sharon Lokedi, John Korir, and Marcel Hug all back to defend Boston Marathon titles. (baa.org) The Boston Athletic Association said the 130th race will be run on Patriots’ Day, Monday, April 20, 2026, from Hopkinton to Boston. The same announcement called this the first known edition to bring back all four reigning open and wheelchair champions, though the current start list has since changed. (baa.org; baa.org) Lokedi returns after winning the 2025 women’s race in 2:17:22, a course record that cut more than 2 minutes 30 seconds off the previous best of 2:19:59. Korir is back after his 2:04:45 victory in 2025, the third-fastest winning time in Boston Marathon history. (baa.org) Hug will chase his ninth Boston wheelchair title and his fourth straight, according to the Boston Athletic Association’s January field announcement. NBC Boston’s current notable-runners list reported one late change in the defending-champions picture: women’s wheelchair champion Susannah Scaroni has withdrawn. (baa.org; nbcboston.com) The race is drawing unusual depth beyond the defending winners. The Boston Athletic Association said 25 men in the professional field have run faster than 2:07 for the marathon, and eight of the top 10 men from the 2025 Boston race are returning. (baa.org) The women’s field includes Emily Sisson, Fiona O’Keeffe, and Dakotah Popehn, meaning the entire 2024 United States Olympic marathon team is entered. The Boston Athletic Association also said 13 American women in the field have personal bests under 2:26. (baa.org) Boston is still the sport’s oldest annual marathon, and the field size for 2026 is capped at 30,000 official entrants. Qualifying was tight again: 33,249 applications came in, and runners needed to be 4 minutes 34 seconds faster than their age-group standard to get accepted as qualifiers. (baa.org; baa.org) That squeeze helps explain why the elite race gets so much attention in Boston. The same event mixes a mass field of qualifiers and charity runners with a front pack that now includes course-record holders, Olympic finalists, and multiple past champions. (baa.org; baa.org; baa.org) Race week is already underway, and the start line is five days away. The headliners are largely the same ones who won Boston a year ago, with Scaroni’s withdrawal the clearest late change to the defending-champion lineup. (baa.org; nbcboston.com)
