Meb Keflezighi of the US reacting as he won the men's division at the 118th running of the Boston Marathon in Massachusetts, yesterday. Nearly 36,000 runners took part in a show of defiance after last year’s bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 250. Photo: Gretchen Ertl/Reuters

Meb Keflezighi yesterday became the first US male athlete to win the Boston Marathon in three decades, an emotional performance in a city still recovering from last year’s fatal bombing attack on the world-renowned race.

Keflezighi, who was born in Eritrea but is now a US citizen, pulled ahead of a pack of elite African runners a little more than halfway into the race and held off a late challenge by Kenya’s Wilson Chebet as the Boston crowd chanted “USA! USA!”.

His official time was two hours, eight minutes and 37 seconds.

Among the women, Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo notched her second consecutive win of the race, smashing a 12-year course record with a blistering official time of 2:18.57, reeling in American Shalane Flanagan, who had led the women for the first 20 miles of the race, setting a punishing pace.

Flanagan eventually had to settle for seventh place.