Kenya's Timothy Cherigat won the men's Boston Marathon, improving on his fourth place from last year's edition as his country celebrated their second men/women's marathon double in 24 hours.

Cherigat - who is in the Kenyan navy - came home ahead of compatriot Robert Cheboror as the 27-year-old added to Kenya's earlier success in the women's race, Catherine Ndereba winning the event for the third time.

Their victories came after Evans Rutto and Margaret Okayo won in London.

Cherigat, who wore tennis shoes in his first ever competitive race in 2000, finished in a time of 2 hours 10 minutes 37 seconds, 1.12sec clear of Cheboror while another Kenyan, Martin Lel, took third over three minutes adrift of the winner.

Cherigat gave the Kenyan men their 13th win in the last 14 editions of the race, though reigning champion Robert Cheriuyot failed in his bid to become the first man to defend the title since another Kenyan Cosmas Ndeti won it three times in 1993-95.

While Cherigat enjoyed a relatively easy victory it was in stark contrast to Ndereba's.

The 31-year-old world champion timed 2:24.27sec to beat home last year's Tokyo Marathon winner Elfenesh Alemu of Ethiopia by just 16sec - the smallest victory margin in the 108-year history of the race - while Olivera Jevtic of Serbia-Montenegro was third.

Ndereba broke away from long-time pacesetter Alemu inside the final kilometre and eased home, though the hot weather had its effect as she collapsed against a railing just after taking the tape.

"It was very competitive," said Ndereba, who won in Boston in 2000 and 2001 and was second in 2002.

"It was such a good feeling to breast the tape but I was getting exhausted," added Ndereba, whose sister Anastasha is also a marathon specialist having won in Turin and Venice in 2002.

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