HOPKINTON, Mass. -- Dire Tune, 22, of Ethiopia, and Robert Cheruiyot, 29, of Kenya, are the winners of the 2008 Boston Marathon elite runners' races, with Tune claiming her laurel crown in a nail-biting win, while Cheruiyot cruised to what seemed like an easy victory after setting a blazing pace.

Tune duked it out with Russia's Alevtina Biktimirova, 25, in a hard-fought battle for the lead in the elite women's race, as the pair ran shoulder to shoulder all the way to the Copley Square finish line and the laurel crown at the end of the course.

Tune broke away with only about 100 meters ahead, crossing the finish line in 2:25.25 and beating Biktimirova by only 2 seconds, the closest finish in the race's history. The previous closest finish was 10 seconds.

In the men's elite race, there was no contest as defending champion Robert Cheruiyot, 29, of Kenya, set a blazing speed through the hills of Newton, leaving all contenders far in his wake to claim his fourth Boston title. He crossed the finish line in an unofficial time of 2:07:46, missing the course record of 2:07:14 that he set in 2006 by only 32 seconds.

Cheruiyot joins only two other men who have ever won the race four times in its history: Bill Rodgers and seven-time winner Clarence DeMar.

Abderrahime Bouramdane of Morocco finished second in this year's men's division race in a time of 2:09:04.

South Africa's Ernst Van Dyk, 35, won his seventh Boston Marathon wheelchair division title Monday, crossing the finish line in 1:26:49 and tying the record for most marathon victories as he did so. It was his second-slowest race course time but he won by a huge margin.

The men's wheelchair champ came back from a third-place defeat in 2007 to reclaim his title, tying Clarence DeMar for second place on the list of all-time Boston victories, trailing only Jean Driscoll.

Wakako Tsuchida, 33, of Tokyo, captured the women's elite wheelchair title for the second straight year, crossing the finish line at Copley Square with an unofficial time of 1:48.32, which was 5 minutes faster than her winning time last year. It was Tsuchida's fifth marathon and her fourth victory.

About 25,000 runners gathered at the race start line early Monday. It was the race's second biggest field of contestants, with more than 38,000 contestants in the 1996 race.

Unlike last year, the 2008 marathon was run under clear skies, with a high temperature reaching the low 60s, the elite racers competing for $150,000 in prize money.

In the U.S. Olympic trials, held Sunday, Deena Kastor won in 2:29:35 to earn a berth in the Beijing Games. Magdalena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell finished second and third to earn the other spots on the U.S. Olympic marathon team.

Lance Armstrong Finishes First Boston Marathon

Lance Armstrong heard different stories about Heartbreak Hill during his training for the Boston Marathon. Some told him it was as tough as the name indicated.

But others said, no sweat, it's overrated. Armstrong said Monday "they were wrong."

Heartbreak Hill, the last in a series of hills between miles 18 and 21, is a key test for runners nearing the end of the up and down course. The first of the hills was the worst, Armstrong said, and the heartbreaker lived up to its name.

Other notables who ran Boston were astronaut Suni Williams, who finished in 4:05:11 and Jane Swift, former acting governor of Massachusetts, who finished in 4:57:21.

Boston was Armstrong's third marathon after running New York twice. Boston was a harder course, and a much different experience because of the closeness of the spectators, Armstrong said. The legendary cyclist finished his first Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 50 minutes, 58 seconds.

Armstrong said he planned to run Boston again, though he added he's too busy with other things to get more serious about running.