Kenyan Domination at Boston Marathons

The weather looks good for Monday's Boston Marathon. The forecast is for a low of 40°F, a high of 59°F and partly cloudy skies. One interesting pre-race article is from the Boston Globe. It reports on the history of Kenyan domination at the Boston Marathons. Their domination also extends to the other major marathons. Here's an example of how dominating they have been:

Last year, 68 Kenyan marathoners were ranked in the world's top 100, including 13 of the top 20. Nine of them will be here [Boston] Monday, continuing an annual parade that now is in its third decade.

Some have asked why Boston has made it so attractive for Kenyans. Here's what one of the race's recruiters had to say:

Boston's approach always has been "best athletes available." If most of them are Kenyans, so be it.

I'm glad Boston recruits the best. As the article notes, it has "spurred their rivals, including Americans, to kick things up a notch." And we're seeing improvements. Ryan Hall finished 5th in London Marathon last weekend in the fastest time ever (2:06:17) by a US-born runner. In the 2006 Boston Marathon, the US actually had the most top 10 finishers (5 out of 10).

Here are some additional Boston Marathon stats and links not mentioned in the article.

All previous Boston Marathon male winners are listed here. Over the last 20 years, there were only 4 male winners not from Kenya (2 from Ethopia, 1 from Korea and 1 from Italy).

I've tallied the number of Kenyans who finished in the top ten of the Men's Boston Marathons since 2000. You can see how dominating they've been. The US men didn't quite win in 2006, but they actually beat Kenya for the number of top ten finishers.

# Kenyans in Men Top 10 Since 2000 
2007 - 7
2006 - 4 (5 from USA) 
2005 - 5
2004 - 7
2003 - 8
2002 - 6
2001 - 4
2000 - 7
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Stats based on results at MarathonGuide.com.