John Korir Signs With COROS Through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

John Korir has signed with COROS in a deal that runs through the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a bold end date for a marathoner who has won three World Marathon Majors but has never raced an Olympics or a world championships for Kenya.

Korir announced the partnership on his own Instagram account on Friday. “Big goals take time, and they need the right tools,” he wrote, saying he had partnered with the watch company “for the road ahead.” He will train on COROS’s PACE series watches and its app, as RunnnSphere reported, and he keeps ASICS as his shoe sponsor.

Korir’s run of majors began in Chicago in October 2024, where he won in 2:02:44, and continued with consecutive Boston titles, in 2:04:45 in 2025 and in a course record of 2:01:52 this April. In between he ran away with the Valencia Marathon in 2:02:24, and that is still his official personal best. Boston’s course runs point to point, so World Athletics lists the 2:01:52 on his profile but does not count it.

A Games He Still Has to Earn

Only three men per country can start an Olympic marathon, and Kenya has rarely been short of candidates. When Athletics Kenya named its five-man squad for Paris in April 2024, the list ran to Eliud Kipchoge, Vincent Ngetich, Benson Kipruto, Timothy Kiplagat and Alexander Mutiso. Korir was not on it, with his Chicago breakthrough still six months away, and his World Athletics profile shows no Olympic or world championship appearances to this day.

He does have history in the host city. Korir won the Los Angeles Marathon twice before any of his majors, in 2:12:49 in 2021 and 2:09:08 a year later. The 2028 Games run from July 14 to 30, with the marathons held on the last two days.

Kipchoge signed with COROS as an ambassador back in November 2020, when the company also became the NN Running Team’s GPS watch partner. Its roster has grown well beyond the marathon since. In May it released a $289 Jakob Ingebrigtsen edition of the PACE 4, and Japan’s Suguru Osako ran 2:07:34 in Chicago this month wearing a PACE 4 Signature Edition he helped design.

Valencia First

Korir’s first marathon under the new deal is the defense of his Valencia title on Dec. 6, and he has been open about what he wants from it. “Any time I get in Valencia I will be happy with, but my prayer is to run sub-two hours,” he told Kenya’s The Star in September, as Marathon Handbook reported. Getting there would mean taking 2:24 off his official best.

Yomif Kejelcha, who ran 1:59:41 in London in April, is also in the Valencia field. When the Ethiopian ran 56:51 for the half-marathon in Buenos Aires in August, he did it with an Amazfit watch on one wrist and a Whoop on the other, so December’s race will have a small wearables rivalry running alongside the big one.

Korir turns 30 four days before the race. “COROS makes it easy to know the work is adding up, whatever the next big stage is,” he wrote on Friday.