News & Releases >> September 19 2007
NEWS Sep 19 2007
Can Danny Kassap revive his Cinderella story?
One of the major stories at the 2004 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon was the surprise victory of a local runner, a 22-year-old Congolese refugee named Danny Kassap who crossed the line first in a then course record of 2:14:50. In winning, he came from behind to defeat a number of highly-favoured Kenyans, and completed a Cinderella-like story. Since then, he has struggled with the system to gain permanent resident status in Canada; struggled to get by on a daily basis; been inconsistent with his training and racing; then fallen in love and married a Canadian; is back training with purpose, and will toe the line on September 30th at this year's race with a new stability and determination in his life. They say love conquers all, and Danny hopes it true!
Three years ago, Danny was the most-unlikely of heroes in a truly Canadian, Cinderella saga. In 2001, he fled the Democratic Republic of Congo. His mother had been a political activist in Lubumbashi, the country's second largest city. One day, a group of soldiers and "thugs" came to their house. Danny was beaten and bound, and his father taken away. Following the incident, Danny fled to the capital, Kinshasa, where he found refuge with the national athletics coach, and hid out in the stadium where he had previously raced and trained. The coach was subsequently able to get Danny out of the DRC on the Francophone Games Team that came to Canada that summer, where the young Kassap "defected".
Danny's first home in Toronto was Covenant House, a shelter for street youth, from where he was introduced to the University of Toronto Track Club—his new, Canadian family. His running steadily improved, giving him a number of victories and strong showings in the Canada Running Series, and a number of track events. Throughout 2004, Danny had some fine road-race duels, chasing Mustafa Bennacer, an Algerian refugee living in Montreal. When Bennacer ran a marathon debut of 2:12:02 in Ottawa in the Spring of '04, it was all the confidence boost Danny needed to achieve his big breakthrough at the Waterfront. The $12,000 prize money was a king's ransom, not to mention the international recognition that followed for the ever-smiling and cheery Kassap.
Coincidentally, after his victory on September 26th, 2004, he first met Diane Tichborne, a local runner and financial consultant. They met with a group of other runners in the post-race area at Metro Hall. "At first we were just friends," recalls Danny, sounding like a line from the movie "When Harry Met Sally". Gradually the friendship blossomed into love and the couple married in August 2006. At the same time, Danny struggled to upgrade his status to permanent resident and Landed Immigrant, going through numerous rounds of applications and appeals. With the stress, plus trying to fit in workouts around work at a local fish and chip shop to make ends meet, his training and racing became inconsistent.
This year, with the new stability in his life, things seem to be coming together. He had a solid run at the Sporting Life 10k in early May, with a 29:08, good for 9th; then he followed up with an excellent outing at the Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon in late June. There, he not only ran 64:03 for second-place, but he was the one pushing the pace from 6k to 16k. He crossed the line more than 2 minutes ahead of Ottawa's Joseph Nsengiyumva, who had been beating Danny all Spring. As final tune-ups for Waterfront, Kassap had an easy training-run win at the Oakville Labour Day 10k, then another easy win at the Montreal Half on September 9th, in 65:31, three and a half minutes clear of the field. He expects to receive his Landed Immigrant status within the next month, and then perhaps a year to full citizenship. This is a track that Lioudmila Kortchguina has recently followed, to become Canada's national women's marathon champion. It's unlikely that Danny’s citizenship will come in time for Beijing, but at only 25 years of age there's still time for a marathon career and London in 2012. "For now," says Danny, "I just want to race well and get that IAAF 'A' standard of sub 2:15. I'm focused on that. The rest—I can't control!" And Diane? She'll be on the same start line as Danny, just a corral or two behind, ready to run a 1:40 in the Half, and be home in time to cheer her husband across the line! Behind every successful man….?