Benson Kipruto to defend his STWM title on October 20
The 28-year-old Kenyan, younger brother to Chicago and Tokyo champion Dickson Chumba, is training for a personal best and possibly the course record this year at STWM
Benson Kipruto, who ran 2:07:24 to win the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon last year (his first marathon win), will return to defend his title this year on October 20, Canada Running Series announced last week.
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Kipruto, 28, is a solid 2:07 marathoner, with a personal best of 2:07:11 from his third-place finish at the 2018 Seoul Marathon, a 2:07:21 from the 2017 Gongju Dong-A Marathon in Korea in addition to his Scotiabank result. With the right training and conditions, he could well set a new personal best and possibly even contest the Scotiabank course record of 2:06:52, set by his compatriot, two-time STWM winner Philemon Rono, in 2017. (Rono finished ninth on a very chilly, windy day last year.)
Kipruto was invited to the 2019 Boston Marathon (where he finished 10th, in 2:09:53) as a result of his win at Scotiabank, though he struggled with blisters and was slightly overtrained that day. Besides raising their profile in the world of elite marathoning, winning also makes a significant difference to a runner’s economic prospects, allowing them to buy animals or property to generate income for their family.
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Kipruto trains under coach Claudio Berardelli at a camp in Kapsabet, in Kenya’s Rift Valley, where he lives from Monday to Friday, going home to spend weekends with his wife and young daughter, whom he recently moved closer to camp. One of Kipruto’s older brothers is Dickson Chumba, winner of the Chicago Marathon in 2015 and the Tokyo marathon in 2018, and runner-up at Toronto in 2017.
Runners may register for the 2019 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon here.
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