Boston Marathon 2012 Results: Weather Robs Defending Champion Mutai of Repeat

For all of 17 miles, it looked like Geoffrey Mutai was going to take the Boston Marathon in back-to-back years.

But Mother Nature had other plans.

In a heat-slowed race that saw the winner, Wesley Korir, finish more than five minutes behind Mutai's last performance, the defending champion was forced to withdraw with cramps after the 18-mile mark.

The 30-year-old Kenyan was reportedly looking for a repeat victory and a spot on the Kenyan Olympic team, but wasn't able to finish the race.

He wasn't alone in that event, as the heat forced a number of people to not even run this morning, with forecasters calling for temperatures well into the 80s.

Korir ran on though, and the 29-year-old was able to finish with a time of 2:12:40, holding off fellow Kenyans Levy Matebo (2:13:06) and Bernard Kipyego (2:13:13) for the win.

The first American to cross the finish line was Jason Hartmann of Boulder, Colorado.

Sharon Cherop completed the Kenyan sweep by winning the women's division in time of 2:31:50. The top finishing American woman was Sheri Piers of Falmouth, Maine who ran it in 2:41:55.

Runners who opted out of the race will have opportunity to run again next year because of the weather.

Unfortunately for Mutai, that same weather stripped him of any chance at repeating.