For the primary time within the 34-year historical past of the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, the race has reached over 25,000 runners. Toronto has established itself as Canada’s premier marathon and has set a precedent within the international working neighborhood, with members coming from 78 nations world wide for the marathon on Sunday, Oct. 15.
The elite subject on the 2023 version of the marathon seems to be considerably completely different from final yr, and two new champions will likely be topped on the boys’s and girls’s sides, as Ethiopia’s Yihunilign Adane and Kenya’s Antonina Kwamboi won’t be returning. The 2023 elite subject options up-and-coming stars, together with a number of American girls aiming to realize the Olympic customary of two:26:50 forward of the upcoming U.S. Olympic Trials in February. The race may also decide two new Canadian marathon champions, with compelling storylines on each the boys’s and girls’s sides.
Right here’s our in-depth elite preview.
Will we see an American winner?
It has been 22 years since an American girl final received the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon (Leslie Gold in 2001) however on this yr’s subject, two American elites might presumably finish the drought. One among them, Emily Durgin, a street racing specialist based mostly out of Flagstaff, Ariz. got here to Toronto on the lookout for redemption after a less-than-ideal marathon debut in NYC final yr.
Durgin mentioned throughout Friday’s elite press convention that she felt the strain to hit occasions and carry out throughout her debut and ended up dropping out of the race earlier than 30 km. “I realized quite a bit from New York and my construct for Toronto has been completely different,” mentioned Durgin. “As for a aim time, I need to run within the low 2:20s and be aggressive.” The 29-year-old marathoner hopes to make use of Toronto as a stepping stone for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February 2024 in Orlando. Durgin was in a position to qualify for the trials from her time on the 2022 Houston Half Marathon the place she completed sixth total, clocking the seventh-fastest half-marathon in U.S. historical past with 67:54. “I got here to Toronto to be aggressive and contend for the the rostrum, as that’s what it’ll take to qualify at trials come February,” she mentioned.
One other U.S. identify within the girls’s elite subject to look at is Molly Grabill, who’s working her sixth profession marathon in Toronto on Sunday. Grabill instructed the media that she has related plans to her compatriot Durgin and hopes to bounce again after, in her phrases, falling in need of her objectives in her final marathon in Hamburg earlier this yr. Though Grabill ran the second-fastest marathon time of her profession in Hamburg, she mentioned she was upset as she took a swing and missed, struggling within the second half. “The aim in Toronto is to manage the second half of the race higher and acquire sturdy momentum heading into the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials,” mentioned Grabill. The 31-year-old from Boulder, Colo., is coming off a top-15 end in 69:53 on the inaugural World Athletics Highway Working Championships in Riga, Latvia, earlier this month, which she says has given her a whole lot of confidence for Sunday.
Eyes on the course document?
Outdoors of the American duo, two different worldwide athletes to look at are the Ethiopian duo of Afera Godfay and 2023 Ottawa Marathon champion Waganesh Mekasha. For Godfay, Toronto is her first marathon in three years after giving delivery to her daughter. Her final marathon got here in 2020 when she ran 2:26:43 to position third total on the Xiamen Marathon in China. In her first two races again since turning into a mom, Godfay has run respectable half marathon occasions of 70 and 71 minutes however has not but returned to her earlier kind. She mentioned at Friday’s press convention that she hopes to return via the half mark in 1:11 and feels well-prepared for her marathon return. A glimpse of hope for Godfay is that she at the moment trains alongside the brand new girls’s world document holder Tigist Assefa in Ethiopia. So, who is aware of what she is able to?
The favorite within the girls’s race is Mekasha, who’s coming off a win within the scorching warmth on the 2023 Ottawa Marathon in Might. Mekasha is concentrating on the Canadian all-comers’ girls’s marathon document on Sunday of two:22:16, set 4 years in the past by Kenya’s Magdalyne Masai at this race. Mekasha holds a private finest of two:22:45 from the 2019 Dubai Marathon and mentioned that she expects round an identical time on Sunday. “If the pacemaker runs a great tempo, I hope to interrupt the course document,” says Mekasha.
The Canadian contingent
Two of the highest three Canadians from final yr’s race have returned to the 2023 subject, with Malindi Elmore, the reigning Canadian marathon champion, opting to run Berlin, the place she clocked the second-fastest time in Canadian historical past (2:23:30). Returning are second and third place Canadian finishers Dayna Pidhoresky and Toronto’s personal Sasha Gollish. Pidhoresky had an iconic second right here in 2019, when she raced slightly below the Olympic customary on the Canadian trials, profitable in 2:29:03–qualifying her for the marathon on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Though the Olympic marathon didn’t go as deliberate for Pidhoresky, she was in a position to bounce again at this occasion final yr to position seventh total (second Canadian) in 2:30:58.
“Rising up in Windsor, Ont., I got here to Toronto for therefore many races,” mentioned Pidhoresky on tackling on her fourth Toronto Waterfront Marathon. “I really feel I do know the course very properly, which is useful in a marathon, and it’s nice to have a high-quality subject that’s near dwelling.” Pidhoresky instructed the media that this construct has not been easy however she continues to be assured she will run a private finest Sunday. “This course is advantageous, and I should be good and simply run my race,” she mentioned.
It’s a related story for Gollish, who’s working in her second consecutive TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, lower than eight weeks after her final marathon on the 2023 World Championships in August. Gollish instructed Canadian Working on the press convention that she desires to enter this race with an identical mindset that she had in Budapest. “It appears like a privilege to be right here, and I’m not placing any strain of a private finest on myself,” says Gollish. “For the longest time, I averted this race as a result of I felt there can be strain to carry out, however why not run one thing in your yard fuelled by a neighborhood that has performed a lot for me?” Final yr, Gollish stunned herself with a private finest time of two:31:40 after a brief marathon construct. May she do the identical on Sunday?
Just a few different Canadian marathoners to look at are Emily Setlack, Toronto’s Liza Howard and Kim Krezonoski of Thunder Bay, Ont. It has been 4 years since Setlack has final touched the marathon, however with a private finest of two:29:48 from the 2019 version of this race, her potential to complete as the highest Canadian shouldn’t be ignored. Setlack has had a quiet 2023 season however has strung collectively stable performances, profitable Toronto’s historic Sporting Life 10K and inserting eighth total on the Canadian 10K Championships in Might.
Howard has a private finest of two:35:29 (Chicago 2022) and was the highest Canadian finisher on the 2023 Boston Marathon (thirty seventh total) in chilly, moist and windy circumstances. Krezonoski moved to Toronto inside the final yr and has been learning the course totally within the hope of crushing her marathon private finest come Sunday. She ran her private finest of two:37 on the California Worldwide Marathon final yr however has dropped her half-marathon PB by practically 4 minutes since. The spots on the home podium are up for grabs, and every of those three girls might break via.
The rise of Elvis
The absence of Adane opens the door for a number of East African males hoping to ascertain their marathon careers in Toronto. One among these males is Kenya’s Elvis Kipchoge, who might already lay declare to the title of the perfect working identify. This Kipchoge is rather less well-known than the previous world document holder however boasts a quicker half marathon private better of 59:15, which earned him third place on the 2022 Barcelona Half Marathon. Nonetheless, this Kipchoge has not had a lot luck within the marathon. On the younger age of 27, he ran 2:10:21 on the Vienna Marathon earlier this yr. He hopes to show issues round on a quick and flat Toronto course. Kipchoge has ties to the race, coaching alongside girls’s course document holder Magdalyne Masai in Iten, Kenya.
Whereas there isn’t any relation between Elvis and Eliud Kipchoge, apart from sharing the identical final identify and initials, Ethiopian athlete Adugna Bikila hopes to observe within the footsteps of his uncle, Worku Bikila. Worku was a world-class 5,000m runner who completed sixth within the 1992 Olympic 5,000m remaining in Barcelona and took fourth place on the World Championships the next yr. Bikila enters Toronto with the quickest time within the subject, holding a private finest of two:05:52 from the 2022 Seville Marathon, the place he completed fourth.
All of the East African males will likely be aiming to interrupt the Canadian all-comers document and course document of two:05:00, held by Kenya’s Philemon Rono, set in 2019. The climate forecast for Sunday signifies cool and beneficial circumstances for each the boys’s and girls’s fields, which ought to make each course information weak.
Who’s subsequent for Canada?
A brand new males’s Canadian champion will likely be topped Sunday, and for the primary time since 2016, their final identify won’t be Levins or Hofbauer. The 2023 males’s subject is stuffed with up-and-coming Canadian expertise on the precipice of breaking into the elite scene. Mississauga’s Sergio Raez Villanueva returns to Toronto after a surprising 2:18:04 debut final yr, which earned him top-five Canadian honours. Difficult Raez Villanueva is Ottawa’s Blair Morgan, who was the second Canadian on the scorching and humid Ottawa Marathon in Might, working 2:19:50. Morgan ran his private finest of two:18:29 on the 2018 Toronto Waterfront Marathon however is on the lookout for a sub-2:18 end result this time round.
Difficult Raez Villanueva and Morgan are debutants Thomas Broatch of Vancouver and 4:01 miler Kyle Grieve. Broatch is coming off a win on the Vancouver Eastside 10K the place he beat three-time Toronto champion Trevor Hofbauer. “Successful the Eastside 10K was an enormous confidence booster for me,” says Broatch. “Everytime you take the beginning line the target is to win and run quick.” The 24-year-old software program engineer instructed Canadian Working that he has bold objectives to run underneath 2:15 on Sunday and that his marathon construct has gone close to good.
For Grieve, who grew up and nonetheless resides in Toronto, this marathon has all the time been on his bucket listing. “I’ve been desirous to attempt a marathon for a number of years and have simply saved placing it off,” says Grieve, who acquired married in the summertime. “Canada Working Sequence is an enormous motive I’m nonetheless competing right now, so it was by no means a query of the place I wished to run my first marathon.” His aim is to be aggressive towards a robust Canadian subject and let the time come together with it.
Find out how to watch?
Marathon followers from world wide may have the chance to look at the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon stay on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023, starting at 8:00 a.m. ET with a pre-race introduction adopted by the introduction of the elite subject. The gun for the boys’s and girls’s elite subject fires at 8:45 a.m. ET. All race motion might be adopted on torontowaterfrontmarathon.com or CBCsports.ca /CBC Gem or AthleticsCanada.television.
Expertise the 2023 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon stay from downtown Toronto on Oct. 15. Get the most recent race information, updates and stay outcomes from Canadian Working with the help of ASICS Canada. Comply with us on Twitter and Instagram for all of the motion.
