By Paul Gains

Fanny Kiprotich has won every marathon he has ever raced. The fact that he has only run two of them, and has a taste for winning, is an indication of the great potential this young Kenyan possesses.

Just 24 years-old, the native of Mount Elgon in the Great Rift Valley aims to make it three-for-three when he competes at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon, a World Athletics Elite Label race, on October 18.

“My target for now is under 2:06 if the weather will be good and if the course is good,” says Kiprotich during a WhatsApp video call from coach Julian Alonso’s house in Iten. “My target is to run under 2:06!”

Kiprotich made his debut at the 2025 Tallinn (Estonia) Marathon winning in a modest time of 2:11:21. That was in September. Then in April of this year he dominated the Vienna Marathon lowering his personal best time to a remarkable 2:06:53. His margin of victory – seventy-seven seconds over Eritrea’s Oqbe Ruesom – was such that he was blowing kisses to the crowd as he made his way to the finish. It should be noted that Ruesom has run under 2:06 twice.

“I started pushing from 27km,” Kiprotich remembers of Vienna, “but I saw it was too far (to the finish) so I came back again, but I went again at 30km. I tried to push alone until 32km then I left him and was alone.

“It was my tactic because during my training we prepared for it. Before I went to Vienna I tried to run 40k in Iten. That was my preparation in training.”

Alonso, an Argentinian physiotherapist who moved to Iten with his wife, is employed by Volare Management a Dutch based sports management agency with a large group of world-class marathoners. Indeed, Leonard Langat, the 2025 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon winner is represented by the outfit although he lives in Kerengit and not Iten. Volare’s head coach is Sammy Bii and Alonso plays a supportive role.

“My target was not to rush to the marathon,” Kiprotich says. “But I was at my home in Mount Elgon and when I came to Iten I found a good training group – that is the Volare Management group. So I got a good group.

“As I got strong I started training with the ladies and then after a while I ran with the men. When I felt confident in long runs, I finished the long runs. It was a good decision to run the marathon.”

Growing up in the Mount Elgon region he was exposed to many runners as a child. Both his parents competed in the 5,000m and 10,000m at Kenyan national championships. And amongst his neighbours were several international runners he would see training on the roads nearby.

“In my area there are (Kenyan born) athletes who run for Qatar,” he reveals. “I think you might know the name Felix Kibore. He is my neighbour.

“I started running when I was young, when I was still in school. I remember when I was young we liked watching (Eliud) Kipchoge. I wanted to be like him.”

Kibore finished 6th in the 2008 World Cross Country Championships and was an Olympic 5,000m finalist for Qatar the same year.

Running in Kenyan culture is not purely for enjoyment. It can be a means to a better future. Hence the temptation for switching citizenship. Kiprotich has used the earnings from his first two marathons to build a home for his parents near Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano located on the border between Kenya and Uganda. They have a plot of land on which they farm. It’s four hours from Iten.

“The first races I ran Tallinn and Vienna, my first thing afterwards, I bought land and now I am building a house for my parents. I am almost finished. So that is my first target,” he says. “Now I need to start to invest in myself because I have already started the first part of the house for my parents. So after Toronto my future is to maybe buy land and then to construct houses.”

“My place in Iten is good. Everything is good, I have a girlfriend – sometimes I call her my wife – she is also an athlete. Cynthia is her name.”

Between training sessions like many Kenyan runners he enjoys listening to Gospel and Kalenjin music with Cynthia and also watching English Premier League football. He supports Manchester United.

It is early in the buildup for Toronto Waterfront Marathon and if he is going to perform well he must adhere to the training program laid out for him by Sammy Bii. And it would help if he were to study the Toronto Waterfront course. Alonso reports that the student is keen.

“He arrived early for this interview,” Alonso reveals, “And we were looking on the internet at the profile of the race so he can start planning. Before this meeting he didn’t have too much information and now we are going to focus. He will do specific preparation for Toronto.“

Kiprotich appears full of confidence in his ability and why not? He has astonished many with his sudden rise. And he seems keen to race Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

“It is my first time coming to North America,” he says “My target is to run some World Marathon Major races then the Olympics or World Championships.”

The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon is a World Athletics Elite Label race and as the field is finalized it will surely bring the best out of him. Whether that sees him maintain an unbeaten streak over his new distance remains to be seen.

By Paul Gains

Some athletes are never satisfied even when they have tabled an enviable competitive record that includes multiple national championship titles. Florence Caron is such a person.

On October 18 the 25 year-old from La Malbaie, Québec will make her debut in the marathon when she lines up for the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. The race, besides being a World Athletics Elite Label race, serves as the Athletics Canada National Marathon Championships.

Already this year she has won the Canadian 10k road championship and successfully defended her Canadian 10,000m title on the track. Then at the Canadian Half Marathon Championship in Edmonton on August 16 she claimed the silver medal.

Caron also represented Canada on the Commonwealth Games team in Glasgow though she admits she was not prepared for a slow tactical 10,000m race. Having already begun her marathon training she had hoped for a fast even pace. She finished 13th. The focus, however, remains TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

“On paper when you look at it, it looks like a really successful year,” she said during a video call from her training base in Flagstaff, Arizona. “You see medals at Canadian championships and I did small PRs (32:32 for the 10km and 1:11:49 in the half marathon). But it’s nothing quite successful, to me, compared to what I had done in the NCAA.”

After competing for Laval University in Québec she transferred to Penn State University to be with her husband Olivier Desmeules, an 800m runner from Québec City.

As a member of the ‘Nittany Lions’ team she won the 2024 Big Ten Conference in both the 5,000m and 10,000m before finishing 14th in the NCAA championships 10,000m. A year later she was 11th in the NCAA 10,000m with a new personal best of 32:23.71.

Success at Penn State, where in 2025 she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, helped earn a contract with Hoka Northern Arizona Elite a small group of athletes sponsored by Hoka and coached by Jack Mullaney. That contract was signed in January of this year.

“The NCAA finals are pretty hard to do well in,” she says of her collegiate career. “I feel like 2026 been a year of adjustment obviously starting later (in running) I have PR’d every year and I have had massive improvement and have adjusted to getting better every year. So I was not disappointed but I wish it had gone better in my first year as a pro.”

Flagstaff has become one of the most preferred high altitude training centres in the US. It sits at 2,134m (7,000 feet) above sea level and like most runners there was a period of adjustment to living and training there.

“The altitude was a switch,” Caron admits laughing. “It feels like you can really push hard at sea level and you will be fine. Here, when you pass the red line in the workout, there’s no coming back. You have to stop.

“So I went out too hard at first and learned from my mistakes. You can’t take the easy run hard you really have to go easy. It’s a learning experience everybody has. You definitely have to respect the altitude.”

Choosing Toronto Waterfront for her marathon debut was an easy choice. Several in her training group are scheduled to run fall marathons – Chicago and New York – also so their training programs are similar. There are other contributing factors.

“First it’s in Canada,” she declares. “It’s my first one and it is not far from Québec. My husband is going to come and pace me. My parents are coming. My step-parents are coming so it’s really special.

“It’s also the Canadian Championship so other good Canadians should be there so I get to see where I rank amongst them.”

Caron is a late comer to the sport. Through high school and Québec’s CEGEP, a three year program to bridge the transition from high school to university, she competed in cheerleading. Running was not in the cards.

“Yes, I did cheerleading for six years and I stopped during covid because, obviously, cheerleading is pretty hard when you have to do social interaction,” she recalls with a smile. “That’s when I started to run.

“I was living by myself in a studio (apartment), I was 19 at that time and you cannot see friends or family so I just started to walk, then run, just to get out of my apartment. Then I started track in March 2021.”

At the moment Oli is in his first year working as a financial analyst in Québec City. Although he ran 1:46.52 for the 800 metres and won the 2023 Big 10 indoor championships for Penn State, he decided to focus on earning a living.

“As an 800m runner it’s pretty hard to keep going without a professional contract,” Caron explains before adding, “He just ran 51km this morning! He wants to do an ultra marathon at some points which is crazy since it so different from the 800m.”

Naturally she misses Oli – he has visited her in Flagstaff twice this year and they see each other between races. And she also misses her five-year-old pet rabbit, a Netherland Dwarf, named Gustave or ‘Gus’ for short. He has lived with her in Québec and when she was at Penn State but is at home in Quebec City with her husband.

To fill in time between training sessions she reads, takes pilates classes and explores the hills around Flagstaff. She has also made plans to get her master’s degree in audiology. To that end she is set to begin two courses remotely in September one in statistics and another in communications. Both are prerequisites for the audiology program at Laval University.

“I am starting a Masters’ degree in 2028 at Laval University. My current professional contract ends at the end of 2028 after the Olympic cycle,” she reveals. “You never know with running if you are going to get another contract so that is my backup option, I guess.”

Caron’s final race prior to the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon will be the half marathon at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, September 20. And then it’s on to the year’s major focus.

By Paul Gains

Two more Canadian distance running stalwarts will make their marathon debuts at the 2026 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon October 18 and both make their home in the London area of southwestern Ontario.

The event doubles as a World Athletics Elite Label Race and also the official Athletics Canada Canadian Marathon Championships.

Connor Black and Jeremy Coughler are former training partners as well as Canadian Championship medalists over 10,000m and cross country but have taken divergent paths the last couple of years since the ‘retirement of their coach, Dave Mills. They do occasionally meet up for long runs in preparation for the marathon.

While Coughler still follows a program designed by the coach – a special exception made by Mills – Black has chosen to work with two-time Canadian Olympic marathoner, Reid Coolsaet, the past two years. Coolsaet has an established coaching business. Their approach to the Toronto event could not be more different.

Black, who lives right in London or ‘The Forest City’ as it is known, sees this as an important stepping stone towards a possible challenge for Canada’s 2028 Olympic team.

“I am thirty years old and I am not making money in the sport but I still have goals,” Black declares, “My final goal would be to try and make an Olympic team and I actually don’t think it’s feasible as an unsponsored track runner targeting the 5k or 10k.

“The marathon is a more even playing field. Like, I can get into any marathon I want within reason. There’s 80 spots (in the Olympics). So I think if I am going to give it one last goal it has to be in the marathon.”

At the 2025 Project 13.1 Half Marathon in Congers, New York he ran a personal best in the half marathon (1:03:34) which was his first race at that distance. Until then he had been primarily a 5,000m/10,000m performer. In 2022, for instance, he won the Canadian Cross Country Championships.

Black is a secondary school teacher but remains ‘Long Term Occasional’ meaning he ‘floats’ from school to school wherever there’s an opening.

“Last year I was at Strathroy District Collegiate Institute which, funnily enough, was where Dave (Mills) taught for ten or fifteen years,” Black says. “I taught ‘phys ed’ and math. I can teach English as a Second Language and biology. I am kind of a Swiss Army knife.”

As he increases his workload in preparation for Toronto Waterfront, most of it by himself, he admits he has reservations about going back to work.

“I am quite nervous to resume teaching,” he reveals. “Recently my mileage has gone up. When you are just starting your build you are tired. It has been nice having the summer off and being able to focus on training.

“I used to believe you can train like a professional and have a full-time job. I think it’s possible but if you look at the marathon, if you want to run 200k a week, I definitely think it’s easier and a little bit better for your performance if you didn’t have to.”

Meanwhile, Coughler and his wife Emma, both chiropractors, are partners in Re-Charge Health and Wellness in London’s east end. They are also the parents of young boy they named Otto which means they must manage their time carefully.

“My wife and I split the work schedule,” Coughler, 30, explains during a day off. “I am at work Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturdays so I typically try to do workouts on my off days when I am at home – Mondays and Wednesdays. And, then if I am doing some stuff, first thing at 7:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m, I do a run and then do a shakeout during the day between patients or after work. It’s not too bad.”

Running while important is one of several important priorities in Coughler’s life now. He reckons he is still running up to 110 kilometres a week – a similar amount to what he used to tally when finishing 3rd in both the 2023 and 2024 Canadian 10k championships in Ottawa. He also won the Canada Running Series’ Beneva Spring Run Off 8k four consecutive years between 2022 and 2025.

While that workload might not come near to what other marathoners are hitting it should be noted that earlier this year he set a new half-marathon personal best of 1:04:33 in the Project 13.1 Half Marathon held in New York State. That earned him 8th place in a strong field. He admits his attitude to running has changed.

“It’s a shift mentally because I have so much other stuff going on that I am trying to just view running as something I am doing because I love to do it rather than I am doing because it’s my whole life,” he explains.

“Previously, when I was at (Indiana) university, running was everything. When you run well it’s great but when you are not running so well it starts eating you alive.”

With the support and encouragement of coach Mills they have plotted a path which they hope will see Coughler finish in the 2:14 to 2:16 range for his first one. The plan is to run more marathons in the future.

“It’s nice that I know there will be a bunch of other Canadian guys who can run around the same time and that will make it deeper,” he concedes. “I know the far end of it there are always some good Kenyans and Ethiopians running fast. Even if there are a bunch of guys running 2:12 to 2:20 it would be great.”

The proximity to his home in Thamesford, which is a fifteen minute drive from his practice and two hour drive from Toronto, means Emma and Otto as well as his parents will accompany him on race weekend. It is one of the reasons he chose TCS Toronto Waterfront for his debut. And he is familiar with the front half of the Toronto Waterfront course having finished third in the half marathon there a year ago. Runners in both races follow the same course until the 20 kilometre mark.

Between now and race day there are many miles to be covered and subject to schedules and pesky traffic conditions these London area runners will reunite for some workouts. And, if all goes well they will line up ready to join the long list of Canadians who have successfully made the step up to the ‘classic distance.

By Paul Gains

Ugandan long distance runners have emerged from the shadows cast by their legendary East African neighbours to earn distinction at the highest level.

Now, Stephen Kissa will represent his nation at the 2026 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon October 18 against a strong contingent of Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes. The event is once again a World Athletics Elite Label race.

Kissa set a Ugandan national record of 2:04:48 when he made his marathon debut in Hamburg finishing in second place. That record, set in 2022, was only beaten this year. Selection to Uganda’s 2023 World Championships marathon team followed and on the streets of Budapest he finished 5th.

Twice he has also represented his country at the Olympics and at the world cross country championships. Understandably, with such experience, the 37 year old is intent on challenging for the $25,000CDN first place prize money in Toronto.

“When I come to Toronto I will do my best. I will do my best,” he declares with a broad smile. “I am really happy if I can 2:03 or 2:04.

“With training we have been comparing from the past to now and we have come up with a solution. Long runs, tempo runs we do like ranging from 25km, 28km, 30km up to 40km. I am running around 120km a week but will go up closer to 200km.”

As it happens Kissa is not the first of his compatriots to compete in the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. Stephen Kiprotich, the 2012 Olympic champion finished 7th in the 2018 edition of the race. Kiprotich remains a national hero in Uganda and his success has vastly contributed to the nation’s emergence as a distance running power.

“About the marathon, I was really inspired a long time back by Stephen Kiprotich,” Kissa admits. “He did some tremendous work and also I can say he is our mentor. We really respect him.

“He has given me advice. ‘Our sport it’s not a one day journey.’ he was saying, ‘it is a long journey whereby it take a lot of patience and commitment. So if you have commitment and patience and hard work it will go far.’”

Kiprotich has been an occasional and very welcome visitor to the training camp in Kapchorwa which Kissa calls home for most of the year. It sits at 2500m/8,200 feet above sea level.

From Monday to Saturday Kissa and his training group, which includes Joshua Cheptegei twice an Olympic champion (5000m and 10,000m), Victor Kiplangat (the 2023 World Marathon Champion) and Peruth Chemutai (2022 Olympic 3,000m steeplechase champion) stay here.

The centre was built by their management company, Global Sports Communications along with a contribution from Joshua Cheptegei. The athletes go home to their families on Saturday evening. In Kissa’s case he lives in Kapchorwa’s town centre about 14 kilometres away. It’s below an area dominated by Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano estimated to be 24 million years old. There he has a wife and two young children.

“Right now they are at school,” he says of his children. “They are about to come home for a holiday. That’s when I will meet them. When there is no problem they wait until holidays. At school they concentrate on their studies unless there is a problem. Then they will call me.”

The training camp includes a dormitory, dining room and kitchen, plus a recreation room where the group gathers to watch sports. The recent FIFA World Cup was an event of great interest and he admits to enjoying the play of Spanish winger Lamine Yamal. But when asked what he does to relax he smiles.

“I can play pool, I like that,” he grins adding with a laugh ‘“Not for money. There is also cards; we play cards.

“Sometimes, when I have time, I can cook chapati. It is made from wheat flour. And we have potatoes also and ugali (made from corn).”

A group prayer is held before each workout. Victor Kiplangat is an assistant pastor at a nearby church called Temple of The Most High God. But the others, including Kissa, will also take their turn leading prayers.

For more than a decade the group has been coached by Addy Ruiter although after the 2024 Paris Olympics the Dutchman returned home. He still coaches the group remotely – using WhatsApp – with a team on the ground led by compatriot Roy Hoornweg.

“The nature of Kapchorwa itself it is hilly it is a mountainous area,” Kissa explains. “I was telling you about the tempo runs. Those are done on a plateau. There it is flat. Our training is different depending on locations. You can’t do long runs in the hilly area so we tend to go to the plateau. We also have flatlands and we can do long runs and tempo runs there.”

Kissa is aware that he is nearing the end of his running career and must look to a future beyond running. Still, he laughs when asked how many more years he can compete “Maybe ten years! I will be happy if I can run 2:03 or 2:04!”

“If Toronto goes really well of course I will look to invest in assets in town, build apartments and some business. I can really say that thank you for inviting me to Toronto If it goes well I will be very proud of it.”

Kissa might take comfort in that he won’t be the only Ugandan in Toronto for the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon. At the Runner’s Expo October 16 and 17 at The Better Living Centre there will a Uganda Tourism booth which includes information on the Mount Ruwenzori Marathon and Great Lakes Safaris.

On the starting line he can be confident in knowing that he has vast international experience, and the talent to compete with anyone. As for ultimate goals he is succinct.

“I pray that in some years to come I should be on a podium at maybe the Olympics or World Championships,” he says. “That is what I am really looking forward to.”

A victory in Toronto would bolster that ambition.

By Paul Gains

Will it be a case of third time lucky at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon for Noah Kipkemboi?

In his first TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2024 the Kenyan star finished 3rd then last year moved up a place to claim 2nd. Now, with the benefit of knowing the course intimately, he returns intent on reaching the top step on the podium.

“It’s really my hope to run well on the course again and to be on the podium,” he says in reference to the October 18 race. “It is my pleasure if I come position one this time. Now I am in training and preparing for the race.”

KIpkembo’s personal best remains 2:07:31 from his initial Toronto visit and beating that time would be especially satisfying. Clearly, his past two visits have endeared him to the event and to the people he has met in Toronto. At the finish line and at the post race press conference he kindly served as interpreter for the 2025 race winner Leonard Langat who is more comfortable speaking Kiswahili than English.

“Please say hello to everyone in Toronto,” he begins a WhatsApp video interview. “It is a beautiful city and thank you for inviting me back.

“I really like when people from the Toronto communities, where we run through, they are always happy and cheering us. Here everyone is shouting ‘go’ giving us motivation. Being cheered you can get power and keep going better.”

As a Christian he has also been inspired by hearing the Canadian national anthem traditionally sung at the race start and the line referencing “God keep our land glorious and free.’ But it is the competition which initially attracts world class competitors.

The TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon serves as both the official Athletics Canada Canadian Marathon Championship and a World Athletics Elite Label race. The prize money on offer – $25,000 CDN to the winners – is more than useful to the runners. Kipkemboi has certainly put his to use raising three young children of his own while also contributing to the school fees for two other children in his village. There have also been medical expenses to consider.

“During the two times racing in Toronto I have been having difficulty before the race,” he reveals. “The first (Toronto) race my daughter Phoebe was not feeling comfortable and after the 2025 race she was having a (second) kidney operation.

“I was on the start line praying that I would win so my kids would be happy. Now she is ok. My happiness if I come position one it will be so beautiful so my kids will be happy.”

Kipkemboi has been represented by the Dutch based Global Sports Communication his entire career and from Monday to Saturday lives and trains at the camp they built in Kaptagat. His family remain at his Eldoret home twenty-four kilometres away. Living arrangements such as these are typical of Kenya’s world class runners.

Among his training partners is the legendary Eliud Kipchoge, the former world marathon record holder and two-time Olympic marathon champion. Kipkemboi served as a pacer for Kipchoge’s 2022 world record in Berlin. Another close friend and former training partner, Philemon Rono, won the Toronto Waterfront Marathon three times and is the course record holder at 2:05:00.

“He has gone to another management group but we are still friends,” Kipkemboi says of his compatriot. “His camp is not far from our camp. Mostly when we are in training in the forest we meet them and wave.

“He asked me ‘are you going back to Toronto? Can we go together this time?’ We were chatting about Toronto. He said ‘you go this time and win that race!’”

These days Kipkemboi is putting in as much as 200 kilometres a week in preparation for Toronto Waterfront. Between training sessions life in the camp is a combination of daily household chores, which are divided amongst the runners, receiving physiotherapy and massage, and meals. For relaxation the runners enjoy watching football together.

“Yes we normally watch football. Me, I like Arsenal,” he says with a smile. “Most of us in the camp, most of the athletes, are fans of Arsenal; like the Commonwealth Games steeplechase champion Edmund Serem he likes Arsenal. When he won the gold medal he did what (Arsenal striker) Viktor Gjokeres does (in celebration).”

With that he interlocks his fingers to form a mask below his eyes as the Swedish footballer does after scoring. It is a reference to the Batman villain Bane in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’.

Like many successful Kenyan runners Kipkemboi is planning for life after his running career comes to an end. With prize money from his first Toronto visit he opened up a general store in Eldoret which sells everything from candy to flour, soap and perfumes. And he farms a plot of land also.

Victory in the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon will not be easy. But Kipkemboi feels he is at home on the streets of Toronto and that could very well make it third time lucky.