Karvonen did not gave up after his disappointment in Turku. In the following year's Boston Marathon he followed Peters until he took the lead before the 30 km mark. Peters dropped from his pace at the course's Heartbreak Hill and Karvonen took his most memorable victory in 2:20:39. Peters finished in 2:22:40. At the 1954 European Championships in Brussels Karvonen, Boris Grishayev, and Ivan Filin competed for the victory. Filin led by twenty meters when arriving first in the stadium. To his misfortune, he turned in the wrong direction on the track and missed victory. In the stadium Karvonen realized Filin's situation and ran for the gold medal before Grishayev and the disappointed Filin. Because of Filin's misfortune, Karvonen did not fully appreciate his championship. In 1954 Karvonen ran altogether five marathons within eight months and ranked first in the "Track &amp; Field News" annual world ranking.