By Paul Gains
To the list of outstanding contenders for victory at the 2025 TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon the name Sila Kiptoo can now be added.
The 27-year-old Kenyan joins a superb men’s field which includes the top three finishers from last year’s race: the winner Ethiopian Mulugeta Uma and Kenyans Dominic Ngeno (2nd in 2024) and Noah Kipkemboi (3rd).
“Yes, I am coming there maybe to win maybe,” Kiptoo declares. “If not, I will try to run a PB (personal best).”
“My training is going well so I am waiting for the day to come and compete against the guys. I will normally run 35km a day, so it means each week about 210km. It’s the same for Paris. I didn’t make any changes from when I was going to Paris.”
Earlier this year he ran a personal best of 2:06:21 to finish third in the Paris Marathon, two places ahead of Ngeno. Although they are from the same area of Kenya they train in different groups and had not met before.
Kiptoo has a history of earning podium places at major city marathons. In 2024 for instance, he finished 3rd in Rome and was the winner of the Gyeongju International Marathon in Korea. He was also 2nd in the 2023 Madrid Marathon. He says he is looking forward to his first visit to Canada.
“I train with Benson Kipruto and Sebastian Sawe,” he reveals. “Benson has come there to Toronto before and says the course is good. He ran there in 2019 he went there and ran a ‘PB’ with Philemon Rono.”
Kipruto, it should be remembered, was 4th in the 2019 Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2:05:13 in a race where Rono set the still standing course record of 2:05:00. That also remains the Canadian All Comers’ Record. Of course, Kipruto went on to even greater notoriety earning the 2024 Olympic bronze medal while Sebastian Sawe won both the London and Berlin marathons this year.
Those are just two of the training partners Kiptoo enjoys time with at the group’s camp in Kapsabet. They are coached by the famed Italian Claudio Berardelli.
“I live in Kapsabet but I grew up in a place known as Kosirai in Nandi County,” Kiptoo explains. “It’s not far away from my training ground, around 8km. I am staying in the camp (all week) so no driving home.”
Part of the sacrifice Kiptoo and his friends have made is to isolate themselves and dedicate everything to their athletics success. Like many he has a wife, Asca Jemutai, who is studying to be a clinical officer at the Kaptagat Medical Training College. The couple has a three-year-old daughter named June-Bethel Jepkirui. The camp, however, is designed to be as comfortable as possible since they spend five or six days a week there away from their families.
During a video call the affable Kenyan provides a tour holding up his phone camera as he wanders the grounds.
“We are around thirty people, runners,” he says providing video of the dining room with a large picnic table in the centre. “And this is where we eat lunch or whatever. There is also a room where we do our exercises. The other building is the ladies’ (dormitory) building. Behind them is ours.
“Normally after training we eat in the dining room and if you feel like going to sleep you go. We have a television and other things. We play pool here. And we watch football. I am a fan of Manchester United.”
Being a supporter of the Reds is something that Kiptoo shares with Toronto Waterfront race director, Alan Brookes. And since it is tradition in the Kapsabet camp that winners of major marathons are celebrated with a cake, Brookes has committed to paying for the celebration, should he win this year’s race.
Tradition is important in the Kenyan running environment and influences from one generation to another are common. Like many Kenyans Kiptoo would see runners training on the dirt roads in the rural area in which he grew up. But, from those early years he also had a link to marathon running.
“I started in primary school 2004 and I finished school in 2015,” he says of his education. “So, when I was starting in running my uncle was an international runner, Martin Lel (a three-time London Marathon winner). He was the one who gave me inspiration to run. I was watching him and sometimes we would meet with him. He gave me advice on how to start running.”
Surrounded by such excellence in marathon running for much of his life Sila Kiptoo is destined for greatness. A victory in the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon would surely be another major leap forward.
