Kenya's Leonard Langat retains Toronto Waterfront Marathon title in 2:06:51; Kenyan Leah Jeruto wins women's race

The defending champion, Kenya's Leonard Langat, retained his TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon title on 18 October 2026 in 2hr 6min 51sec at the head of an all-Kenyan podium, while his compatriot Leah Jeruto won the women's race in 2hr 21min 19sec for the first marathon victory of her career.

Fanny Kiprotich finished second in 2:07:21 and Noah Kipkemboi third in 2:07:25, according to results published by the Canadian magazine Canadian Running. Asbel Rutto (2:07:32) and Elvis Cheboi (2:07:37) made it five Kenyans in the first five places. In the women's race, Ethiopia's Nigsti Haftu was second in 2:21:34 and her compatriot Ayinadis Teshome third in 2:22:51.

Langat is the first man to win in Toronto in consecutive years since Kenya's Philemon Rono in 2017. He was the only man under 2:07, which earned him the C$5,000 time bonus, the magazine reported; the Canadian athletics website Athletics Illustrated put his winner's prize at C$25,000. Both course records survived: Rono's 2:05:00 from 2019 and Ethiopian Waganesh Mekasha's 2:20:44 from 2024.

The men's lead pack of 12 passed halfway in 1:03:30. The 30-year-old Langat took the lead after the 35-kilometre mark. "This has been a little bit cold and a very competitive and strong field," he said, as quoted by Athletics Illustrated. "I tried my best and I managed to break the group."

Jeruto broke away late in the race and ended a run of three Ethiopian wins in the women's race. Athletics Illustrated said her time was more than three minutes faster than the 2:24:31 she ran in finishing fourth at the Cape Town Marathon in May, and that only two women have run faster on the Toronto course.

"I feel very happy with my personal best; to go from 2:24 to 2:21," Jeruto said at the finish, as quoted by the site. "I like Toronto. I was very excited because I was not expecting a personal best."

Langat won the 2025 race in 2:08:04, World Athletics results show, with Kipkemboi 24 seconds behind in 2:08:28 and Kenya's Sila Kiptoo third in 2:08:44. Kipkemboi, third in 2024, has now finished on the Toronto podium three years running.

Langat's personal best of 2:05:26 came when he finished fourth at the Cape Town Marathon on 24 May 2026; he did not improve on it in Toronto. His World Athletics profile gives his date of birth as 2 August 1996.

Kiprotich arrived unbeaten over the distance, having set a personal best of 2:06:53 to win the Vienna City Marathon in April. Teshome came to Toronto with a best of 2:20:51 from sixth place at the Seoul Marathon in March. Haftu was one of several women who missed the turn for the marathon at the 2025 race and did not finish.

The 2025 women's title went to Ethiopia's Shure Demise in 2:21:03, ahead of Kenya's Betty Chepkorir in 2:23:45. Chepkorir was ninth this year in 2:28:29. Antonina Kwambai won for Kenya in 2022 in 2:23:20; Ethiopian women took the next three titles.

The race is a World Athletics Elite Label event and this year doubled as Athletics Canada's national marathon championships. The organisers counted this year's race as the 37th edition and the 27th over the marathon distance. Andrew Davies of Vancouver won the Canadian men's title in ninth place in 2:08:48, the fastest debut in Canadian marathon history.