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A man in a banana suit was a Toronto Marathon frontrunner

Melvin Nyairo ran the world record for the fastest half-marathon dressed as a fruit

If you were watching the live stream or cheering on course on Sunday morning, you would’ve noticed that there was a man in a banana suit running with the lead Canadian women at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Photo: Maxine Gravina

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Banana Man, as he was called by spectators, was wearing Nike Next%’s and moving at a very impressive clip (with or without a banana suit). The Banana Man’s name is Melvin Nyairo of the US and he finished in 1:15:35, setting the unofficial world record for fastest half-marathon dressed as a fruit.

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The record was previously held by Canadian Rob Lapensee at 1:19:13.

In other half-marathon results, both champions set massive personal bests on Sunday morning. In the men’s race, Ben Preisner ran a two-minute personal best, hitting 1:03:02 for the half-marathon win. Preisner’s time is the sixth-fastest half-marathon run by a Canadian. In the women’s race Brittany Moran ran a three-minute personal best to take the win in 1:15:12.

It was a very fast day in Toronto. Trevor Hofbauer ran the second-fastest marathon by a Canadian man, Dayna Pidhoresky ran the sixth-fastest Canadian marathon by a Canadian woman and both booked their tickets to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

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