Habtom Samuel and Fentaye Belayneh Win the 2026 Boston Half

Habtom Samuel won the Boston Half on Sunday in 59:49, setting an event record and running what the B.A.A. says is the first sub-hour half-marathon ever recorded in Massachusetts.

The 22-year-old Eritrean took 45 seconds off the record Lelisa Desisa set in 2013, and he did most of the work on his own. Samuel made his move a little past 15K and had no company for the rest of the morning at Franklin Park, finishing 1:14 clear of Kenya’s Andrea Kiptoo (1:01:03), who was third here a year ago. Abel Kipchumba, the 2023 champion and the fastest man in the field on paper with a 58:07 best, came in third in 1:01:16.

Samuel said he could see the record coming as early as 10K, even knowing the toughest part of the course was still ahead. “I knew the first 10K was very flat and downhill, but the second half was the hardest part of the course,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m going to fight for the course record!'”

Samuel’s year began with a 59:01 course record in Houston in his first half-marathon, while he was still racing for the University of New Mexico. He turned professional in July and has not been beaten since, winning the Beach to Beacon 10K, running 30:53 at Falmouth for the first sub-31 by a man on that course, and taking the Dash to the Finish Line 5K in New York in 13:31 just eight days ago. Sunday’s run was the third record of his season.

Fentaye Belayneh’s win was much closer, which is how she seems to like it. The Ethiopian is now the first woman to win the Boston Half three years in a row, and her three titles have come by a combined five seconds: one second in 2024, two over Melknat Wudu last year, and two on Sunday over Kenya’s Winfred Mbithe. Kassie Parker of the U.S. led early while Belayneh sat in the pack through 10K in 33:02, then made her move on the final uphill to the finish and won in 1:09:14. Mbithe ran 1:09:16 and Sintayehu Lewetegn of Ethiopia was third in 1:09:26.

Belayneh came in as the fastest woman in the field by some distance, with the 1:04:49 she ran in Houston in January, but it is the course and the crowd that keep her coming back. “I come here because I know the event is great,” she said through an interpreter. “I love the atmosphere, and I’ve won twice before.”

Jack Aho was the top American man in sixth, and no American has run faster in the race’s history than his 1:01:53, four seconds inside the 1:01:57 Chandler Gibbens ran last year. James Mwaura of the B.A.A. High Performance Team was ninth in 1:03:10 in his first half-marathon. Sydney Vaught, who won the U.S. 10,000m title in July, was also racing the distance for the first time and finished fifth in 1:09:44 as the top American woman. Megan Hasz Sailor, the top American in each of the last two editions, was seventh in 1:09:53.

“It was a really challenging course, off the hills,” Vaught said. “I didn’t really know what to expect going in, so I was super happy.”