RACERS TO WATCH OUT FOR ON SUNDAY
8th April 2008by Sarah Marl
The listing was posted by Disability Sport Events
With an elite field of athletes taking part on Sunday 13th April, there are many to keep an eye on during the race. Here are the top contenders:
David Weir (Great Britain & NI)
Born: 5 June 1979
Marathon best: 1:27:46 Los Angeles 2007 (British
record)
London Marathon record: 2000- 4th 1:47:11,
2001- 3rd 1:50:55, 2002- 1st 1:39:44,
2003- 2nd 1:34:48, 2004- 2nd 1:36:56,
2005- 3rd 1:36:03, 2006- 1st 1:29:48 (course record),
2007- 1st 1:30:49
Other major city marathons
Los Angeles: 2007- 2nd 1:27:46
Career notes
Weir won the London Mini Wheelchair Marathon seven times before graduating to the full distance in 2000. He is the only male athlete to win the mini marathon and then go on to win at the senior event. He has an outstanding record on the track. In the Paralympic Games in Athens he won a silver medal for 100m and bronze at 200m and set a Paralympic record of 14.17 in the 100m heats. And in 2006 he broke two world records on the track and was
champion three times at the Paralympic World Cup. He also became European champion at 1500 metres. He now holds British records at all distances up to 5000m on the track as well as at 10km, half marathon and marathon on the road. He has demonstrated that he can win marathons from the front going away from the field as well as in a close finish. Any racer with him with a few hundred metres to go will fear his blistering finish.
Personal notes
When asked if he is a sprinter or a marathon racer Weir says: “I am just an athlete.” He also says he loves the London Wheelchair Marathon. Weir is coached by Christine Parsloe and Jenny Archer of the Velocity Wheelchair Racing club. In 2007 he was voted London Sportsman of the Year by the London Sports Forum for Disabled People.
Ernst van Dyk (South Africa)
Born: 4 April 1973
Marathon best: 1:18:27 Boston 2005 (World best,
course not accepted for records)
London Marathon record: 2000 2nd- 1:41:53,
2006- dnf, 2007- 4th 1:33:46
Other major city marathons
Boston: 2001- 1st 1:25:12, 2002- 1st 1:23:19,
2003- 1st 1:28:32, 2004- 1st 1:18:27,
2005- 1st 1:24:11, 2006- 1st 1:25:29,
2007- 3rd 1:37:10
Oita: 2007- 1st 1:23:22
Marathons in major championships
Paralympics: 2000- 4th 1:31:44, 2004- 18th 1:41:59
Career notes
The talented South African has still to produce his best in London but his legitimate career best of 1:23:22 at Oita last year will be an encouragement to him. As a big man the Boston course suits him but his record of six successive wins is a phenomenal achievement.
At the Athens Paralympics Van Dyk won two silver medals and a bronze but had to settle for what he describes as a controversial silver in the 1500m after losing by just 0.41s. With 200m to go he had a little confrontation with Saul Mendoza and Van Dyk felt his
left wheel forced off the ground. He was also runnerup in the 800m and third in the 5000m. The demands of his strenuous programme took its toll and in the marathon he finished 16 minutes behind the champion, Kurt Fearnley. Racing in London in 2006 he crashed out early when up with the leaders.
Personal notes
Van Dyk trains like a Trojan, seven days a week, four hours a day, covering as much as 400km a week. Born with congenital birth defects, he was a top swimmer before concentrating on wheelchair racing. At the Barcelona Paralympics he competed as both a
swimmer and a wheelchair athlete. Van Dyk is an ambassador for the Paralympics and
has a degree in sports science.
Heinz Frei (Switzerland)
Born: 21 January 1958 Oberbipp
Marathon best: 1:20:14 Oita 1999 (World record)
London Marathon record: 1992- 3rd 1:51:58,
1995-1st 1:39:14, 1998-1st 1:35:18, 1999- 1st 1:35:27
Other major city marathons
Berlin: 1st 17 times
Oita: 1st 12 times
Hamburg: 1st 12 times
Marathons in major championships
Paralympics: 1988- 4th 1:48:20, 1992- 1st 1:30:15,
1996- 3rd 1:32:42, 2000- 3rd 1:29:29,
2004- 7th 1:32:04
Worlds: 1994- 1st, 2002-1st
Career notes
The most prolific and fastest wheelchair marathon racer on the earth. As well as holding the world record he has won 102 marathon races and will be returning to London after a gap of nine years. In London in 1998 he won from the front with a gap of eight minutes and in 1999 he won in a sprint finish, beating the Frenchman Joel Jeannot by just one second.
Frei is also the world record holder for 10,000m on the track with 20:25.90 from 1998. He also holds the world best for 100km with 3:38:50. He has won 12 Paralympic gold medals and the same number at world championships.
Personal notes
Frei has also taken part in the Winter Paralympics.
Kurt Fearnley (Australia)
Born: 23 March 1981 Carcoar
Marathon best: 1:21:10
London Marathon record: 2007- 2nd 1:30:59
Other major city marathons
Chicago 2007- 1st 1:28:47
New York: 2006- 1st 1:29:32, 2007- 1st 1:33:58
Marathons in major championships
Paralympics: 2000- 21st 1:38:02, 2004- 1st 1:25:37
Worlds: 2006- 1st
Career notes
Fearnley took part in the London Marathon for the first time in 2007 and started as favourite. But the fantastic sprinting speed of Britain’s David Weir surprised him and he had to settle for second. That was his only defeat of an amazing year, however, as Fearnley won 10 out of 11 marathons in 2007, setting five course records in the process. He had an outstanding year in 2006, winning two major city titles and beating Heinz Frei in the World
Championships where he also won gold at 800m and 5000m and a bronze at 1500m. He also won the New York Marathon that year by six minutes in a course record despite crashing at 20km when he hit potholes. He beat Frei for a second time when he
finished second in Oita. A determined athlete, he won the Paralympic marathon in 2004 despite racing the last 20km on a flat tyre.
Fearnley’s career started with the Australia Day 10km road race around Sydney harbour and since then he has started every racing year at that event.
Personal notes
Fearnley has won many awards including New South Wales Athlete of the Year in 2005, 2006 and 2007. He was also Australian Athlete of the Year in 2006 and 2007, and is a qualified physical education teacher. The youngest of five children, most of whom are
involved in sport, Fearnley is missing the lower portion of his spine.
Choke Yasuoka (Japan)
Born: 18 January 1973 Prambui, Thailand
Marathon best: 1:22:17 Seoul 2007
London Marathon record: 2007- 5th 1:33:50
Other major city marathons
Seoul: 2007- 1st 1:22:17
Career notes
In 2007, Yasuoka became the first Japanese wheelchair athlete to enter the London Marathon and he finished fifth after a sprint finish for the bronze medal. He is Paralympic champion at 800m.
WOMEN
Shelly Woods (Great Britain & NI)
Born: 4 June 1986 Blackpool
Marathon best: 1:40:20 Oensingen 2007
London Marathon record: 2005- 2nd 1:57:03,
2006- 2nd 2:04:37, 2007- 1st 1:50:40
Other major city marathons
New York: 2006- 2nd, 2007- 2nd 1:54:19
Oensingen: 2007- 4th 1:40:20
Los Angeles: 2007- 1st 1:50:51
Marathons in major championships
Worlds: 2006- 3rd
Career notes
Like David Weir among the men, Woods is the only woman to have won the London mini wheelchair marathon and then go on to win at the full distance. She won the mini marathon twice. Ever since she entered the London Marathon in 2005 Woods has shown she has the potential to be a great athlete, and many predict she will take over the mantle from Tanni Grey-Thompson. After twice finishing second, Woods won the London Marathon for the first time in 2007 just a month after winning in Los Angeles. Later in the year she broke
the 10-year-old British marathon record held by Rose Hill, a London winner herself in 1992 and 1994. She also broke Grey-Thompson’s 10km record by three seconds, setting the new mark at 24 minutes exactly in New York, only to lower it again to 23:27 a week later in Atlanta. She also won the Great North Run half marathon. She holds British records at 800m, 1500m, 5000m and half marathon, and last year qualified for the final of the 1500m at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka but finished a disappointing eighth.
Personal notes
She was coached by Jason Gill until the end of 2006 when she switched to Andrew Dawes. Her inspiration is the cyclist Lance Armstrong, seven times winner of the Tour de France. Woods became a paraplegic aged 11 when she fell 20 feet from a tree.
Francesca Porcellato (Italy)
Born: 5 September 1970 Cfranco Vto
Marathon best: 1:38:29 Padua 2005 (World record)
London Marathon record: 2003- 1st 2:04:21,
2004- 1st 2:04:58, 2005- 1st 1:57:00,
2006- 1st 1:59:57, 2007- 2nd 1:59:46
Other major city marathons
Paris: 1995- 1st
New York: 2001- 1st
Berlin: 2005- 2nd
Seoul: 2007- 1st 1:53:00
Marathons in major championships
Paralympics: 1996- 10th 2:19:24
Career notes
Porcellato has the unique distinction of winning the London Marathon on four successive occasions from 2003 to 2006. She is also the current world record holder and has
won a total of 10 Paralympic medals of various colours in her career so far, including gold at 100m in 1988.
Personal notes
Porcellato describes the London course as “The most beautiful but challenging and best marathon in the world.”
Amanda McGrory (United States)
Born: 9 June 1986 Kennett Square, PA
Marathon best: 1:39:20 Oensingen 2007
London Marathon record: Debut
Other major city marathons
Chicago: 2007- 1st 1:45:27
Colorado: 2007- 1st 1:55:32
New York: 2006- 1st 1:54:17, 2007- 3rd 1:56:09
Oensingen: 2007- 1st 1:39:20
Marathons in major championships: None
Career notes
McGrory missed Porcellato’s world record in Switzerland last summer by just 51 seconds and has said she aims to break it soon. She beat Britain’s Shelly Woods by just two seconds at the New York Marathon in 2006 after falling in the early stages of the race. Last year she finished third but had victories in Oensingen, Chicago and Colorado. She also won a gold medal at 800m, and a silver at 400m at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen, The Netherlands. She aims to race over 800m, 1500m, 5000m, and the marathon in Beijing.
Personal notes
McGrory was paralysed from the waist down at the age of five when an injection for an allergy damaged her spinal cord and left her with a rare condition called transverse myelitis.
She studies psychology at the University of Illinois where she also plays wheelchair basketball for the university.
She entered her first marathon in 2005 after a bribe.
Edith Hunkeler (Switzerland)
Born: 30 July 1972 Altishofen
Marathon best: 1:39:27 Schenkon 2006
London Marathon record: Debut
Other major city marathons
Turin: 1997- 1st
Hamburg: 1998- 1st
Berlin: 1998- 1st, 2001- 1st 1:47:46,
2002- 1st 1:45:52, 2005- 1st 1:49:46
Boston: 2002- 1st 1:45:57, 2006- 1st 1:43:42
Schenkon: 2002- 1st, 2004- 1st, 2006- 1st 1:39:27
New York: 2004- 1st 1:53:27, 2005- 1st 1:54:52,
2007- 1st 1:52:38
Marathons in major championships
Europeans: 2001- 1st, 2003- 1st, 2005- 1st
Worlds: 1998- 2nd, 2002- 2nd
Career notes
Hunkeler is a very experienced marathon racer with numerous big city wins behind her, including four victories in Berlin and two in Boston. She has also won the New York City marathon three times, including the race last November when she beat Shelly Woods in 1:52:38. She has set a number of quick times, but her fastest marathon came in 2006 on
home ground in Switzerland. She is a triple European marathon champion and has
twice won silvers at the World Championships. But she was badly injured in the Berlin Marathon in 2000 which ruled her out of the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. She came back stronger in Athens in 2004 where she won two silver medals in the 1500m and 5000m.
She has a strong record on the track with gold medals in 800m, 1500m and 5000m from the 2002 and 2006 World Champsionships. At the Europeans she won golds at 400m, 800m and 1500m in 2001, and at 400m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m in 2003 and 2005 when she also took the marathon titles. At last year’s World Games in Taipei she won gold at 200m,
400m, 800m and 1500m. She has won 41 Swiss national titles and holds the Swiss records for 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.
Personal notes
At 22 Hunkeler was involved in a car accident that left both her paralysed in both her legs.
Sandra Graf (Switzerland)
Born: 9 December 1969 Gais
Marathon best: 1:40:13
London Marathon record: Debut
Other major city marathons
Berlin: 2006- 1st 1:42:48
Boston: 3rd 3 times
New York: 2004- 2nd 1:53:37, 2007- 5th 1:58:10
Marathons in major championships
Paralympics: 2000- 5th 1:59:54, 2004- 5th 1:59:09
Worlds: 2006- 2nd, 2007- 1st 1:44:22
Career notes
Graf is a hugely experienced wheelchair racer who last year won the IPC World Championships marathon and the Lisbon half marathon. She also won the Berlin Marathon in 2006 and has finished third three times in Boston. Her runner-up time from New York in 2004 remains the second quickest ever on that course. This will be her London Marathon debut.
Personal notes
Graf lives in Gais, Switzerland, with her husband,
Martin, and two daughters, Melanie and Mara.