Ethiopian star Fatuma Sado returns to Toronto Waterfront Marathon hoping for course record

Last year's runner up at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon is returning. This year, she wants to be number one.

fatuma-sado

Ethiopian marathon star Fatuma Sado returns to the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in pursuit of the victory that eluded her a year ago.

Although she has won marathons in Beijing, Hamburg, Los Angeles and Warsaw, she had to be content with setting a new personal best of 2:24:16 and a second place finish in Toronto last year. She wants more on October 16th.

“Yes I was happy and I got a new best time in the marathon distance,” she says of her debut performance at this IAAF Gold Label race. “But winning is nice too.”

This year, she wants to run a good race and hopes to land herself on the podium and take first place if she can. A new PB would be a bonus.

Earlier this year, the 24-year-old (who turns 25 five days before the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon) ran in the Lanzhou Marathon finishing fifth in a rather slow time of 2:38:39. But she points out that the Chinese city lies 1,521 metres above sea level and the weather was extremely hot and humid in contrast to what she can expect in Toronto. “I can run faster than 2:24,” she says.

Since her return from China, she has been preparing for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon with one of the strongest training groups in Ethiopia. The group of some 100 athletes meet several times a week to do long runs in the rural areas of Sendafa and Sululta outside Addis Ababa.

Amongst her training partners are Mare Dibaba (the 2015 World Champion and bronze medalist at the Rio Olympics), Amane Gobena (winner of the 2009 Toronto Waterfront marathon who has a 2:21:51 best), and the two-time Ethiopian Olympian, Meskerem Assefa.

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“I learn from them every day and we all push each other very hard in training. So training is like competition every day almost,” she says.

At present Sado lives in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital at an elevation of 2,350m although she arrived from her home in Arsi when she was a teenager. At elementary school she had shown promise and was encouraged to go to Addis to pursue a running career. Arsi is an area that has produced such talented athletes as Haile Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh and Genzebe Dibaba as well as Derartu Tulu.

Like all Ethiopians, she grew up knowing the history of the nation’s distance running success. And she says the pride in these runners spilled over to her and her peers.

“Every legend of our sport from Ethiopia inspired me and still does daily and I hope I am inspiration to some young girls right now as well,” Sado says.

Her life in Addis revolves around training and recovery and she has ambitions to be amongst the very best in the world. Family and friends are important to her. Her two brothers who live with her help to look after her in regards to her training, meals and physio. In her spare time, she goes to the cinema, shopping and has traditional Ethiopian coffee in a friend’s home.

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Each time she is reminded of her Toronto experience last year, she smiles. One of the highlights was joining other Ethiopian runners, past and present, at an Ethiopian restaurant on Toronto’s Danforth Avenue.

“Toronto is very nice and beautiful to me. Maybe this time I will go to see some sights,” she says.

The field in Toronto will be loaded with talent. Shure Demise, the 2015 Toronto champion, now 20 years old, is also returning as the favourite. Her margin of victory a year ago was a mere 39 seconds. Sado is unlikely to allow the youngster to escape easily this time around and if the conditions are right then maybe the women’s course record of 2:22:43 held jointly by Kenya’s Sharon Cherop (2010) and Koren Jelela (2011) could be challenged.

This year could potentially be the most competitive Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in history.

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