Athletics, Boston Marathon: 10 years after the attack

Monday, April 15, 2013, ten years ago. At the 117th Boston Marathon – it is the oldest in the world, always scheduled on St. Patrick’s Day – more than 5,600 of the approximately 23,000 starters (all spent more than five hours from the start in Hopkinton) are still expected at the finish line on Boylston Street . The winners, the Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa (2h10’22”) and the Kenyan Rita Jeptoo (2h26’25”), have long since completed the operations required by the ceremonial. It is 2.49 pm Massachusetts time, 8.49 pm Italian time. In the space of 27, dramatic seconds, right near the finish line, placed 170 meters from each other, two homemade bombs explode. These are two six-liter pressure cookers filled with explosives, nails, pieces of iron and metal spheres, contained in black bags, whose timer is probably a kitchen clock. They cause the deaths of three people, including an eight-year-old boy. And they injure over 260, sixteen of whom – including a 7-year-old girl – lose their legs. It is a sad day for world sport.

Movie clothes

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Three days later, the FBI identified two Chechen Muslim brothers, Tamerlan and Dzochar Carnaev, aged 26 and 19, as the culprits of the attack. Hours follow which, not surprisingly, will be told in a film (“Boston, manhunt”), during which a policeman loses his life. Areas of Boston go into lockdown, schools closed. Tamerlan subsequently dies in a firefight with the authorities, Dzochar is arrested and in 2015 sentenced to the death penalty. The sentence, in 2020, was transformed into life imprisonment, but in March 2022 again into capital punishment by the Supreme Court. The motive? Never precisely clarified, but he has to do with certain fanaticisms.

The symbol

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Ten years later the bombed out road and sidewalks have been repaired. And of what happened there are no more signs, if not small memorials. In many, however, the memories resurface clear. On Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, the marathon will celebrate its 127th edition. With a prize pool close to one million euros, also the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Olympic champion, the greatest specialist in history, will be at the start. Among the members or in the public there were also some of those who suffered the most from the attack: injured, their families, volunteers in the rescue that day, people who passed by the finish line of the race by chance. Like Adrienne, a ballet dancer who, amputee, had to learn to walk with the help of a prosthesis. Her with whom she completed the marathon in 2016. Will try again on Monday. It has become a symbol. And many who weren’t marathon runners have become one in his wake.

What a day

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For Monday, even if there are currently no alarms, the security measures have been reinforced. Citizens have been urged to pay close attention. And on the day when the Red Sox will also traditionally play a major league baseball game and the Bruins will host Game 1 against Florida in the quarterfinals of the NHL ice hockey playoffs, invited to use public transport. “The tenth anniversary of the horrible attack – Mayor Michelle Wu said in a press conference – brings with it a series of emotions and reflections”. Not to forget.