NYC Marathon 2002 - Wheelchair Race

New York City Marathon 2002 - Wheelchair Races

In the second official year of wheelchair competition in the New York City Marathon, four new course records were set. The wheelchair field consisted of approximately 90 competitors - about half in the push rim category and half in the handcrank category.

Saul Mendoza, one of the wheelchair greats, dominated the push rim competition as he finished alone in 1:39:29, followed by Roberto Brigo of Italy (1:47:39) and Kamel Ayari of New York (1:48:21) who traded off second and third positions throughout the race. Ziv Bar-Shira of Israel won the new hand-crank division in 1:27:49 without serious competition, followed by Bogdan Krol of Poland (1:34:17) and Randy Upper of Canada (1:37:19).

In the women's race, Francesca Porcellato of Italy won the push rim category in 2:12:58 more than forty-five minutes ahead of the next female push rim competitor. Helene Hines of New York City won the women's handcrank category for the second year in a row, dropping her time to 1:46:21 from her 1:57:27 finish in 2000. Helene was unchallenged in the race and finished more than thirty-five minutes ahead of any competition.