The 2026 Boston Half Field Is Led by a Two-Time Defending Champion

Fentaye Belayneh won the last two editions by a combined three seconds and ran 1:04:49 in Houston in January. In the men's race, Habtom Samuel takes on 2023 champion Abel Kipchumba.

Published: Oct 14, 2026 4:16 pm

Jessy Carveth

Jessy Carveth

Jessy is our Senior News Editor, pro cyclist and former track and field athlete with a Bachelors degree in Kinesiology.

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Ethiopia’s Fentaye Belayneh, the two-time defending champion, will try to become the first woman to win the Boston Half three years in a row when the race returns to Franklin Park on Nov. 8, and she comes back a far quicker runner than the one who won the last two. The Boston Athletic Association named its professional fields on Wednesday, and the 1:04:49 Belayneh ran to win the Houston Half Marathon in January is the fastest time on the women’s start list.

Neither of her Boston wins left her much to spare. In 2024 she ran 1:10:26 and finished just one second clear of Mestawut Fikir and Senayet Getachew, who crossed the line together in a tie for second. Last November she outkicked fellow Ethiopian Melknat Wudu by two seconds in 1:08:51, becoming the first woman to win the race in back-to-back years since Joan Chelimo Melly in 2017 and 2018. Houston was close as well, with Tsigie Gebreselama only three seconds behind, but Belayneh took more than two minutes off her personal best that day. She also has a track runner’s finish to call on: she is the African 5,000m champion and won a Diamond League 3,000m in 2025.

The 2026 Boston Half Field Is Led by a Two-Time Defending Champion 1

Germany’s Melat Kejeta has the next-best time in the field. Her 1:05:18 earned silver at the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia and was a European women-only record at the time. She and Ethiopia’s Sentayehu Lewetegn, who ran 1:06:58 in Prague this year, will both be racing on Boston’s roads for the first time. Six women in the field have broken 1:10, and Mercy Cherono, who won world silver over 5,000m in 2013 and was fourth at the Rio Olympics, adds another track résumé after moving to the roads and running 1:10:06 in Prague.

Emily Durgin is the fastest American entered at 1:07:54, though Megan Sailor has the better Boston record. The B.A.A. High Performance Team runner was the top American here in each of the last two years, finishing sixth last November in a personal best of 1:09:39, and she was ninth at the Falmouth Road Race in August. Sydney Vaught, who won the U.S. 10,000m title in July, and Great Britain’s Jasmine Trott will both make their half-marathon debuts.

Abel Kipchumba and Habtom Samuel Head the Men’s Field

Abel Kipchumba brings the fastest best in the field, 58:07 from Valencia in 2021, and he has broken an hour nine times, but his winning time here in 2023 was a more modest 1:01:32. Last year’s race, on an updated course through the Emerald Necklace parks, went to Isaia Lasoi in 1:00:59, and he is not back to defend his title. Neither is Yemane Haileselassie, the 2024 winner.

Habtom Samuel has already won three of the biggest road races in the U.S. this year. His half-marathon debut in Houston in January produced a course record of 59:01, and that was while he was still at the University of New Mexico, where he won five NCAA titles before turning pro in July. Within weeks he had won the Beach to Beacon 10K in 27:40 and then Falmouth in 30:53, the first time anyone has run under 31 minutes on that course.

The 2026 Boston Half Field Is Led by a Two-Time Defending Champion 2

Mohammed El Youssfi was third behind Samuel in Houston, setting a Moroccan record of 59:21, and has since won the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, the Gate River Run 15K and the Pittsburgh Half Marathon. Wesley Kiptoo, the U.S. half-marathon champion, has his own history with Samuel’s Falmouth record: his 31:08 in 2023 equaled the old mark that Samuel took down in August. Kiptoo finished 23rd in the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September, and Ethan Shuley, a 2:07:14 marathoner, comes in after placing 13th at the Sydney Marathon in 2:08:34.

The B.A.A. is also sending two of its own High Performance Team runners into their first half marathons: James Mwaura, second at the USA 20K Championships, and Eric van der Els. Colin Bennie, a native of nearby Princeton, Mass., and the top American at the 2021 Boston Marathon, is entered as well.

The race is in its 25th year, and nearly 9,000 runners from 104 countries are expected on the start line.