TORONTO. March 17^th.  Organizers have confirmed that Simon Bairu will compete in this year’s Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon on Sunday, October 16^th. The addition of Bairu to the Start List sets the stage for what will arguably be the best-ever Canadian race over the classic 42.195km distance. He will join Reid Coolsaet, Eric Gillis and Rob Watson from Guelph’s Speed River Club, and Kingston’s Dylan Wykes,  who is currently training with Richard Lee’s Lower Mainland Group in Vancouver.  Coolsaet, Gillis, Wykes and Watson are currently ranked #1, #2, #3 and #4 in the Marathon in Canada. Bairu set an impressive new Canadian 10,000m record of 27:23 last May, before dropping out of his much-anticipated marathon debut in New York City in November.

Combined, the five athletes arguably represent the best group of men’s marathoners that Canada has ever had — an certainly combined on the same starting line.  When Coolsaet ran 2:11:23 at last year’s Toronto Waterfront, it was the fastest marathon ever run on Canadian soil, and the fastest marathon by a Canadian in 24 years. It also gave him an Olympic qualifying standard for London 2012, with a sub-2:11:30. Gillis narrowly missed the challenging Athletics’ Canada standard, running 2:12:08 at STWM 2010, one place behind Coolsaet. Two months later, Wykes had a major breakthrough, taking his previous marathon best of 2:15:16 down to 2:12:39 in winning the California International Marathon in Sacramento. Watson made his debut at the Houston Marathon in January in a disappointing 2:16:17 after passing halfway in 65:28. As Canadian 10K Road Champion and runner-up at the 2010 National Cross Country, he is favoured to do much better in his second outing.  Simon Bairu is considered by some to be the best of the group, following an outstanding career for Canada at shorter distances, capped by his a 13^th place finish at the 2010 World Cross Country Championships [the first non-African] in March, and his  impressive 10,000m record set on the track at Stanford last May