FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Records smashed at ninth annual Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon
Course record broken and over $1 million raised for charity at
Toronto's premier running event
TORONTO, Sept. 28 /CNW/ - Over 15,000 people raced along Toronto's
Lakeshore today for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. With over
$1 million dollars raised, a new course record set and a sold out event,
2008 marks the most successful year in the marathon's history.
"Scotiabank is proud to support this incredible event again this year,"
said John Doig, Senior Vice-President of Marketing for Scotiabank. "Not
only have we achieved some amazing results today, the Scotiabank Toronto
Waterfront Marathon has brought the world to our Waterfront. This event has
united runners, spectators and communities across the city in support of
over 60 charities".
Despite strong headwinds and high humidity levels, the women's course
record was shattered by an incredible four minutes by Ethiopian Mulu Seboka
in 2:29:05. This time eclipses the previous course record of 2:33:16, set
by Asha Gigi of Ethiopia who this year finished in third place with
2:33:24. Second place went to Olena Shurkhno of the Ukraine with 2:30:12.
Kenneth Mungara fought a close battle, finishing just two seconds ahead
of fellow Kenyan Peter Kiprotich, to win in 2:11:00. Amersisa Ketema of
Ethiopia followed in third place at 2:11:51. Last year's winner and current
course and Canadian record holder, John Kelai finished in fifth place with
a time of 2:12:12.
Dylan Wykes finished as fastest Canadian and 11th place overall in
2:16:20. Remarkably this was only Dylan's second marathon in his first ever
year of marathon running. Fastest Canadian female was Suzanne Evans with
2:44:22, finishing overall in ninth place.
A full list of winners is available at www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com
"With over 15,000 people running and new records set, this year has
certainly been the biggest and best year in our history. Marathon mania is
clearly on the rise in Toronto and we look forward to growing the event
once again in 2009," said Alan Brookes, Race Director.
Over 1,000 children from grades four to eight participated in the
Scotiabank MarathonKIDS program today. Scotiabank MarathonKIDS promotes an
active and healthy lifestyle from a young age and provides students with
the opportunity to increase their level of physical activity while focusing
on reaching a goal. Running in daily intervals since the start of the
school year, students completed the last five kilometres of a full marathon
on race day.
The Scotiabank Group Charity Challenge exceeded its $1 million target
with a final total of over $1.2 million. This is an improvement over last
year's total of $920,000 and is set to benefit 63 significant community
charities.
Along the marathon course, runners were supported by 11 Neighbourhood
Cheering and Entertainment stations. Little Chinatown won the Scotiabank
Neighbourhood Challenge and a charity bonus of $6,000 for having the most
people, most noise, best costumes and best entertainment.
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