Marcel Hug and Madison de Rozario Win N.Y.C. Marathon Wheelchair Races

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Marcel Hug of Switzerland, identified as the Silver Bullet, continued his stellar 12 months by winning the New York City Marathon men’s wheelchair race on Sunday for the fourth time. Madison de Rozario of Australia won her first women’s wheelchair title.

Hug led from the begin, finishing in 1 hour 31 minutes 24 seconds, the capstone of a phenomenal 2021. He gained 4 gold medals at the Tokyo Paralympic Video games this summertime, together with his second consecutive gold in the marathon. Right after Tokyo, he received the Berlin, London and Boston marathons and finished in next place in the Chicago Marathon just powering a person of his most important rivals, Daniel Romanchuk of the United States.

Hug, who is employing a new, superior-tech chair, misplaced to Romanchuk by one particular second in New York Metropolis in 2019, just after winning in 2017. He held off Kurt Fearnley of Australia, the system report-holder, by 6-hundredths of a 2nd in 2016. In 2013, Hug beat Ernst van Dyk by five-tenths of a 2nd.

Hug, 35, faced no this kind of drama on Sunday. He held a 3-minute guide about David Weir of Britain soon after 20 kilometers, or 12.4 miles, and passed the halfway level at 43 minutes 52 seconds, and was on a rate to smash his very own training course finest by practically two minutes. His lead ballooned to additional than three minutes as he sped up 1st Avenue. That direct grew to much more than six minutes by the complete.

“It’s really crazy” to gain, Hug reported soon after the race. “It’s been these a tough fall with the Paralympics and then all these marathons.”

Hug said with so lots of races so near together, he targeted on recovery fairly than instruction all through the earlier few months.

Weir completed next at 1:38:01, when Romanchuk came in third at 1:38:22.

“It’s incredible to have this major hole I in no way expected,” Hug claimed. “I expected to have a group jointly. Possibly two or three. But I experienced the likelihood to split away early.”

Hug, who is identified as the Silver Bullet since of his speed and silver helmet, won 4 consecutive Boston Marathons through 2018, and has gained every single of the 6 Abbott Planet Marathon Majors. He owns the quickest all-ailments marathon record, which he established in Boston in 2017.

Immediately after trailing Romanchuk in the standings for considerably of the year, Hug secured his third Environment Marathon Majors title on Sunday.

“It was attention-grabbing to have this big showdown in New York” with Romanchuk, Hug reported.

De Rozario, the to start with Australian winner in the 20-calendar year heritage of the women’s wheelchair division in New York Metropolis, turned a race that was restricted early into a one-girl show in Manhattan and the Bronx. She completed in 1:51:01.

Unlike the men’s wheelchair race, the women’s division was a dogfight among the Manuela Schar, 36, the defending champion from Switzerland Tatyana McFadden, 32, a five-time New York City champion and de Rozario, 27.

It was de Rozario’s third time racing in the New York Metropolis Marathon. Her only other marathon main title was in 2018 in London.

On Sunday, McFadden poked forward of de Rozario and Schar by about 5 seconds close to the midway place. McFadden pushed up the Queensboro Bridge, which connects Queens and Manhattan, with de Rozario a handful of seconds driving. Schar fell considerably farther back.

But after McFadden strike the peak of the bridge and started to glide down the other aspect, de Rozario sped past her. De Rozario then pulled in advance for fantastic on Initial Avenue and continued to establish her guide. She concluded 3 minutes ahead of McFadden (1:53:59) and Schar (1:54:02).

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Staying chased by McFadden and Schar “is one of the most terrifying things in the marathon, so I definitely required to avoid” becoming caught, de Rozario said soon after the race. “So when that hole opened up, yeah, I just kind of attempted to do every little thing I could to keep it.”

De Rozario won the gold medal in the marathon at this year’s Tokyo Paralympic Game titles, edging Schar by just one second. She also gained gold in the 800 meters in a Paralympic file time, and bronze in the 1,500 meters.

She intended to race in other global marathons this fall, but simply because of border limits in Australia, she was involved about her potential to return household. But the limitations were being lifted at the start of this month, enabling de Rozario to make it to New York in time to race.

The silver lining of being dwelling, she reported, was that she was more rested than her rivals.

“I feel it absolutely performed into it,” she mentioned.

Compared with in Tokyo, the place she held off quite a few challengers in what she known as a “panic dash to the finish,” de Rozario raced in entrance for the second half of the race on Sunday, which was a new emotion.

“I’ve under no circumstances gained a marathon like that in advance of, and I did not know how stress filled it means to be out front like that mainly because you really do not know how close the subsequent athlete is,” she stated.

Hug and de Rozario will each get $25,000 for finishing very first, though Weir and McFadden won $20,000 for their next-put finishes. Romanchuk and Schar received $15,000 each and every.