Shure Demise wins her third Toronto Waterfront Marathon–after nine years

After a gap of nine years, two-time Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion Shure Demise of Ethiopia made it three on Sunday, breaking the tape in 2:21:04, just 20 seconds off the course record set last year by Waganesh Mekasha (at 2:20:44) and four seconds off her personal best. Demise won this race in both 2015 and 2016.

Kenya’s Betty Chepkorir was second across the line, in 2:23:46, with Almaz Kebebe of Ethiopia finishing third, in 2:26:41.

After her previous wins in Toronto, Demise competed at two World Athletics Championships and stood on the podium at the Chicago Marathon in 2018 and the Tokyo Marathon in 2019. In April, she (like Langat) won the Milan Marathon, in 2:23. Her personal best is 2:20:59, from 2015.

Demise led from the gun, with three others following; she looked smooth and confident, and by halfway, she had opened about a 15-second gap over the chasers, going through halfway in 70:04. However, the women’s race was marked by disaster for three athletes; two Ethiopian elite women failed to make the turn where the marathon splits from the half-marathon, inadvertently ending their race early, while a third retraced her steps to rejoin the race, having fallen considerably behind as a result of the detour.

At the post-race press conference, Demise, who has become a mother in recent years, said (through an interpreter) “I am very happy. It’s very special for me to be a new mother and to be back here, winning again.” 

She was only 4 seconds off her personal best. “The wind was very hard–I was struggling with the wind. But I managed to at least handle that and be able to finish, Previously it was colder, that’s wht I was remember. But the wind was unexpected.

Race conditions were relatively warm (17 C at the start), humid (73 per cent) and windy, as is often the case along Toronto’s lakeshore.

Kenyans sweep the men’s marathon

It was a Kenyan sweep in the men’s race, with 2025 Milan Marathon champion Leonard Langat scoring his second marathon win of the year, breaking the tape in 2:08:05. Noah Kipkemboi finished second, in 2:08:29 (moving up one position from his third-place finish here last year), with Sila Kiptoo third, in 2:08:46. 

Last year’s champion, Mulugeta Uma, dropped out, and last year’s runner-up, Dominic Ngeno, was sixth.

The men’s and women’s marathon winners each take home $25,000 in prize money.

Flanagan wins Canadian Marathon Championships in his debut

Ben Flanagan of Kitchener, Ont., won the men’s Canadian Marathon Championships in his first attempt at the distance, crossing the line in 2:15:41, while Rachel Hannah, a veteran of the course, won the women’s race in 2:33:48; her previous best position at the Canadian championships was second, from 2016. Hannah won the Around the Bay 30K race in 2024 and 2025. Check back shortly for that story.

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