Lucas Bruchet, who came in second place, leads the pack of runners in the male elite category at the the start of the 2021 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 10K event, in Toronto on Oct. 17, 2021.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
When the Toronto Waterfront Marathon returns in the fall for the first time in three years, runners are in for a few surprises.
On Tuesday, the marathon said that IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will replace Scotiabank as its new title sponsor through November, 2026. The partnership will give participants access to the TCS marathon app, which allows runners to race with augmented reality, share their on-course location with spectators in real time, help them calculate their environmental impact as they run and travel, and enjoy an improved virtual offering if they choose to race from home. The Toronto Waterfront Marathon is the first road race in Canada to adopt the technology, following in the footsteps of other major races such as the New York City and London marathons.
“We really want to offer our runners and spectators an enhanced digital experience,” said Charlotte Brookes, event director of Canada Running Series, the organization behind the Toronto Waterfront Marathon and several other large road races in the country.
“The [TCS] app provides an opportunity for people to feel connected to the event experience.”
Supporters will also be able to create a digital cheer card that will flash on screens as specific runners pass. In addition, the app will enable racers to track their environmental impact throughout the weekend, and offset it with a suggested donation to an environmental charity of their choice.
Virtual racers, meanwhile, will have access to many of the same features, and may also get to download an audio track that mimics sounds of the Toronto course as runners reach certain milestones. Upon completing their race, those runners will unlock a virtual medal and a usable backsplash of Toronto’s finishing area to reproduce an end-of-race photo.
“As technologies evolve, we’re adapting to the needs of the new world,” said Michelle Taylor, global head of sports sponsorships at TCS, “and hybrid racing and events is where we’re at and we do see things staying here.
“The goal is to replicate the experience of the city no matter where you are,” she added. “If someone chooses to run in the virtual race, they can do so in a way that still gives them a taste of Canada, a taste of Toronto wherever they are in the world.”
Toronto follows other major marathons in digitizing its event; a trend accelerated by the pandemic and its travel and health restrictions. The London Marathon used the TCS marathon app for the first time this year, and now gets runners to wear Restrata tags, which use GPS technology to contact trace for COVID-19. The New York City Marathon, meanwhile, offers a 3-D interactive race map that provides in-depth looks around the start area on Staten Island, highlights landmarks along the course, and shows its elevation changes.
Those features are a long way ahead of some of Canada’s early pandemic iterations of virtual races, such as comparing time trials among training partners online, 900-kilometre relay runs across Newfoundland, and countless versions of Instagram “end-of-run-selfie-tag.” But continuing lockdowns and case surges, as well as varying comfort level of racers, has made it worthwhile for races to bolster a world-class hybrid race offering.
Brookes said the appetite for virtual racing is slowing among Canada Running Series participants. She predicted only 10 per cent of the series’ registrants to race from home in 2022, down from what felt more like a 50-50 split last year. But even if the pandemic wanes, she said, the inclusion of a virtual-race option might give more people who live far away, and more people who do not want to pay the in-person fee, a chance to partake.
“I think hybrid racing is a new standard, it makes it more inclusive,” she said. “Having world-class in-person and virtual options is an added way of reaching out to the new wave of runners that the pandemic created.” New research shows that nearly 30 per cent of current runners started after the beginning of COVID-19, and Strava, a fitness-tracking app used by runners and cyclists, said its average monthly growth rate doubled throughout the pandemic.
The Toronto marathon is the first race in Canada to adopt the TCS app, but other races are not far behind in bolstering their digital offerings. Kirsten Fleming, executive director at Run Calgary, said the first few virtual races her road-racing organization offered were primitive, and operated on the honours system: runners timed themselves, took a picture of their result, and uploaded it. Now, Run Calgary uses the Runkeeper app, which facilitates registration and timing, and provides audio cues for virtual racers.
“People like to be connected digitally, that’s a must for races now,” said Fleming, who said all nine of Run Calgary’s races will be delivered in a hybrid capacity this year. “Virtual racing isn’t going anywhere.”
Still, like Brookes, Fleming expects that a majority of runners will prefer in-person races in the wake of lockdowns. A Run USA study of 4,500 runners had shown that up to 86 per cent of respondents wanted to go back to in-person racing in 2021. Quinton Jacobs, a marathon runner from Woodbridge, Ont., partook in both virtual and in-person races last year. He said that good tracking technology and virtual offerings helps to connect more people to the sport, but that nothing beats the in-person experience.
“Having an app like this one is exciting, but no matter what you do to spice up virtual races, it just can’t compare to the energy that comes with pushing yourself with someone who is struggling just as much as you are,” he said.
“I can’t wait to toe that line in Toronto in person this fall.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
