Ugandan
Stephen Kiprotich headlines the list of elite runners that will line-up for the
Toronto Marathon on Sunday in Canada.
He is the first Olympic champion to grace the race and owing to his profile, Kiprotich wants to show his might over the 42km race in the province of Ontario.
“Taking it to another level this time,” Kiprotich wrote on his
Facebook timeline last week.
The 2012 Olympic marathon champion has however not won a race in five years, since beating the field to gold at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia.
“This time round I need to change the beats,” he told this website. The best places he has run since have been second at the Tokyo Marathon in 2015 as well as in Hamburg and Fukuoka last year.
It will be Kiprotich’s 17th career marathon in seven years but only his third in the Americas having run at the New York Marathon in 2013 and 2014.
A victory in Toronto is worth 30000 Canadian Dollars (Shs86m) but Kiprotich is even eyeing more. “I am going to try NR (national record) this weekend,” Kiprotich responded to one of the comments on his post.
Kiprotich holds the national record which he set after coming second in Tokyo three years ago in a time of 2:06:33.
His quest will be tested by Kenyan Philemon Rono who is a two-time Toronto Marathon champion and 2014 Dubai Marathon winner Ethiopian Tsegaye Mekonnen.
Kiprotich’s CV
Date of Birth: February 27, 1989
Main Event: Half-Marathon, Marathon
Personal Best: 1:01.15 (Half-Marathon), 2:06.33 (Marathon)
Manager: Jurrie van der Velden
Twitter Handle: @Stephen42k
Kit Sponsor: Nike
Marathon Career Highlights
2011 - 1st Enschede Marathon (2:07:20)
2011 - 9th Daegu World Champs (2:12:57)
2012 - 3rd Tokyo Marathon (2:07:50)
2012 - 1st London Olympics (2:08:01)
2013 - 6th London Marathon (2:08:05)
2013 - 1st Moscow World Champs (2:09:51)
2013 - 12th New York Marathon (2:10:56)
2014 - 12th London Marathon (2:11:37)
2014 - 5th New York Marathon (2:13:25)
2015 - 2nd Tokyo Marathon (2:06:33)
2015 - 6th Beijing World Champs (2:14:42)
2016 - 4th Tokyo Marathon (2:07:46)
2016 - 14th Rio Olympics (2:13:32)
2017 - 2nd Hamburg Marathon (2:07:31)
2017 - 2nd Fukuoka Marathon (2:07:10)
2018 - 5th Hamburg Marathon (2:07:57)
This writer is a scribe with Daily Monitor Newspaper and, also a sports presenter with NBS Television and Radio One FM 90 in Kampala. Follow him on Twitter: @AllanDarren and his Facebook Page: Darren Allan Kyeyune
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