By Paul Gains
Ethiopia’s Shure Demise took the lead roughly halfway through the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon today and, despite warm, windy and humid conditions, powered her way to her third victory at this World Athletics Elite Label Race.
Her time of 2:21:03 was the second fastest time of her career and narrowly missed the course record (2:20:44) set by her compatriot Waganesh Mekasha a year ago.
Remarkably, her personal best of 2:20:59 was recorded ten years ago at the 2015 Dubai Marathon when she was still 19. Trailing only her designated pacemaker, she had only the clock and a wind coming off Lake Ontario with which to contend.
Podium finishes at the 2019 Tokyo Marathon and 2018 Chicago Marathons as well as a 5th place finish for her country at the 2017 World Championships, followed by back-to-back Toronto Waterfront victories in 2015 and 2016. Winning today signalled that she had successfully returned from giving birth to a baby girl two years ago.
“I am very happy. It is more than what I expected,” she said while coughing and struggling to remove her racing shoes. The exhaustion was accompanied by a visibly bruised toe on her right foot. Once she recovered, she smiled and said a prayer.
“I want to improve my time. I want to run with others and get my name known around the world,” she said afterwards. “I have trained very well for this race, and I was confident I would do well and win. It was from 20km that I was running by myself.”
Earlier this year, she won the Milan Marathon in 2:23:31 in a similar fashion. The Toronto Waterfront victory, however, signalled she will once again be a force on the world stage.
Betty Chepkorir of Kenya was next to cross the line in a time of 2:23:45, and Almaz Kebebe third in 2:26:40. The race was dampened somewhat when three Ethiopian women failed to follow the marathon course and turned up the finish straight prematurely. They had followed participants in the half-marathon, which is run concurrently. But by that time, Shure was well on her way to victory.
The men’s race saw a Kenyan sweep with unheralded Leonard Langat breaking away from a pack of six roughly four kilometres from the finish. Noah Kipkemboi, who was third in this event a year ago, moved up one step on the podium to claim second place in 2:08:24 while Sila Kiptoo finished 3rd in 2:08:44.
The winner declined to speak in English, and so Kipkemboi was pressed into service as a Kiswahili to English translator. The pair smiled over this. Until they boarded their transatlantic flight from Nairobi, they had never met.
“I am very happy with the win,” Langat admitted. “At around 38km, I was ready to push, and I went. I knew that Noah was the one following me.
“It was hot, but I was feeling good with the weather, and I was confident. The wind was ok. My time was ok for that race.”
For his part, Kipkemboi had met his goal of improving his position from 2024.
“I am happy with my performance. I was hoping to be on the podium. It was tough, but I kept pushing.
At 36km or 37km (Langat), got away. I was just following. If I could have pushed more, I would have paralyzed myself.”
The Canadian Championships were once again held jointly with the World Athletics Elite Label race, and there were some surprises.
Rachel Hannah has won Canadian championship medals previously, but never won a marathon title. Today she demonstrated resolve and at the age of 39 realized that goal while co-favourites Dayna Pidhoresky, a 2021 Canadian Olympian, and Salome Nyirarukundo, a 2016 Rwandan Olympian, who only learned she was eligible for the Canadian prize money the previous day, both dropped out.”
“I am thrilled, it has been a dream of mine to win these championships,” Hannah said of her victory in 2:33:47. “I am so happy. I slowed down at the end, but I think on a cooler day, with less wind, I am going to try for a personal best. I am signed up for the Marathon Project on December 20. I may go for a PB there. I felt good the whole way today.
“I had pacers and guys to run with the whole race and that really helped, because if you are alone, especially on the way back, it can be very open there. I think we might have wind at our back at the end.”
In her wake, it was the surprising duo of Makenna Fitzgerald and Brittany Moran, the latter competing in her first marathon post-partum, who took silver and bronze, respectively.
Meanwhile, it was Ben Flanagan who took the men’s Canadian Championship title in his debut at the distance. Before the race the Kitchener, Ontario native, who now lives in Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his wife and infant daughter, had stated his intention to compete for the gold medal rather than chase a time. He ran away from fellow Canadians Philippe Parrot-Migas and Andrew Alexander shortly after the halfway mark. His winning time was 2:15:39, while Parrot-Migas finished in 2:17:15 and Alexander 2:18:15.
Achieving his goal, Flanagan was ecstatic in front of friends and family wearing t-shirts reading ‘Team Flanagan.’
“Totally, at the end it would have been nice if I was surprised with the time faster than it was, but I told myself time didn’t matter,” he revealed. “I tried not to get distracted by it. But man, I didn’t really expect the second half of the course to be that hard. The last 7km was hard and the last 3km was brutal. I am just happy I finished strong.
“Once I hit 37km, every kilometre might as well have been ten kilometres. It was so hard. I thought I had a big enough lead.”
Flanagan who represented Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics over 5,000m has Olympic aspirations for this distance and will focus on marathoning going forward.
“For sure, this is a new chapter for me. A new era to set it off with a win against more experienced athletes is exciting,” Flanagan offered. “Now it’s time to start to catch up with the big dogs. Rory (Linkletter) is at 2:06 and Cam at 2:05. Rory is not going to get any slower, and Cam could wake up one day and run 2:03.”
