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McFadden is looking to make it four in a row in London after winning her fourth consecutive Boston Marathon crown on Monday, the first contest in the inaugural AbbottWMM series which offers US$50,000 to the overall winner over a 12-month, eight-race programme.
“Boston was incredible,” said McFadden today. “The weather was fantastic, and the start of the Abbotts was so exciting as the athletes have been fighting for [this kind of] equality. It’s great they have included wheelchair athletes in the Majors now.”
Widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes of our time, McFadden has proved unstoppable over short and long distances. In Boston, she took the lead before the half way point and crossed well ahead of Switzerland’s 2013 world champion Manuela Schär and Wakako Tsuchida from Japan, the five-time Boston winner who had beaten her in Tokyo earlier this year.
The trio are among 15 world class racers lining up for the London race. McFadden, who turned 27 yesterday, has broken the London course record with each of her London victories, and it now stands at 1:41:14.
Her February defeat to Tsuchida was her first in four years but McFadden insists it did not reveal a new chink in her armour.
“The Marathon in February was tough,” said the triple Paralympic champion. “It came after three events in California, but it was a great time to get a race in.”
Not content with winning marathons around the world, in September McFadden will take on the biggest sporting challenge of her career when she goes for seven gold medals at the Rio Paralympic Games. She is aiming to win every event from 100m to the marathon, including the relay.
“It’s potentially 12 races over a week and a half, including heats,” she said. “It’s the first time in history that anyone has tried it.”
Tsuchida, the 2010 London champion, is one of the oldest in the field at 41, but still the fastest on paper. After winning in Tokyo, her rivals have huge respect for her form but she was quick to return the compliment. “I’ve had to up my game to compete because Tatyana is such a fantastic athlete,” she said.
Briton Shelly Woods also hopes to be on the champion’s tail. The 29-year-old Blackpool athlete has been hampered by punctures since her second victory in 2012.
“This sport has got tougher and tougher,” says Woods. “The athletes are getting faster and it’s really exciting to be a wheelchair athlete now. I didn’t do well in Boston, but I’ll be ready on Sunday. I like London because it’s home. Maybe I’m biased, though, as I’m British.”
Jade Jones is the other British athlete on the elite Start Line. At 20, Jones is still building her career over the full distance having won the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon three times and raced on the track for Britain at the London Paralympics four years ago.
One person who will be watching her closely on Sunday will be her coach, the six-times London Marathon winner, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.
“Tanni and her husband, Ian, came to my school and got me in a racing wheelchair,” explained Jones. “In 2010, I took it up seriously but I never thought I would make the London team in 2012.”
Jones hopes to make it to Rio where she will focus on track events. She ducked under the two hour mark on her marathon debut two years ago, but had to pull out last year due to injury.
Source: Virgin Money London Marathon
