The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
- Benson Kipruto ?? 2:07:24.0
- Augustino Sulle ?? 2:07:45.9
- Felix Kandie ?? 2:08:29.5
- Cameron Levins ?? 2:09:24.9
- Jake Robertson ?? 2:09:51.2
- Daniel Teklebrhan ?? 2:10:02.4
- Stephen Kiprotich ?? 2:11:06.0
- Anthony Maritim ?? 2:13:06.5
- Philemon Rono ?? 2:13:36.6
Top Prizes
1st — $30,000
2nd — $15,000
3rd — $10,000
4th — $6,000
5th — $4,000
6th — $2,000
Toronto, Canada | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda’s former Olympic and world marathon champion Stephen Kiprotich finished 7th as the Toronto marathon got a new winner, Kenyan Benson Kipruto.
Kipruto, 27 surprised the strong field of Kenyans and Kiprotich, by winning in 2:07:24 to bag the top prize of Canadian $30,000 ($23,000).
It was his first international marathon win but his time was far from last year’s winning and record of 2:06:52 set by fellow countryman Philemon Rono.
“I tried to push, and when I pushed, I saw the guys were not there. I saw that I could win,” Kipruto said after the race.
Second place went to 21-year-old Augustine Sulle from Tanzania with two-time champion Rono managing 9th.
The women’s race was won in a new record time. Bahrain’s Mimi Belete finished in 2:22:26.
Kiprotich, the first Olympic champion to compete in the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, clocked 2:11:06. which was far outside his personal best of 2:06:33 set in Tokyo in 2015.
Kiprotich came 5th in 2:07:57, in his most recent race, the 2018 Haspa Hamburg Marathon in Germany in April.
Kiprotich, now 29, became a Ugandan national hero when he won the 2012 Olympic marathon, becoming only that country’s second Olympic champion in history. A year later he won the 2013 IAAF World Championship marathon in Moscow’s searing heat.
But for all his outstanding performances he has so far failed to match his personal best time (2:06:33).
“I have the two medals but also I want to run a faster time than 2:05,” he told IAAF. “Most of the people they look at my times and they ask me how did you win these two medals in poor times? So it is my hope to run a good time before I retire.”
