Philemon Rono is a Kenyan marathoner and a three-time winner of the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, where his 2:05:00 from the 2019 edition remains the fastest marathon ever run on Canadian soil.
Rono began his international career on the roads of Europe, winning a ten-mile race in Tilburg in 2011 and the Paderborn Half Marathon in 2012, where he set his half marathon best of 60:58. He then moved up to the marathon and made Toronto his signature race, winning in 2:08:25 in 2016 and returning a year later to defend the title in a Canadian all-comers record.
In 2019 he lowered that mark to 2:05:00, winning Toronto for the third time. A member of the NN Running Team, Rono serves in the Kenyan police, which earned him the nickname the baby police on the international circuit.