Press Release - London Marathon - 3/1/16

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    WORLD'S FINEST PARA-ATHLETES AT 2016 VIRGIN MONEY LONDON MARATHON
 
More than 70 of the world's finest para-athletics marathon racers will be 
in action at the 2016 Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday 24 April as 
the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup returns to the streets of the British 
capital.
 
Four reigning marathon world champions plus five previous World Cup winners 
will be among the starters in the seven races that make up the third 
edition of the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup.
 
Among those past London winners hoping to taste victory again this year are 
Aniceto dos Santos of Brazil who cut more than nine minutes from his 
personal best to take gold in the T13 race for visually impaired runners 12 
months ago, and US wheelchair racer Raymond Martin who turned the tables on 
Spaniard Santiago Sanz in the T51/52 event.
 
Martin won four Paralympic titles on the track in 2012, and has eight world 
golds to his name from 2013 and 2015. But Sanz will be back too, seeking 
revenge as he defends the World Cup title he won by two minutes ahead of 
Martin two years ago.
 
Italy's 2013 world champion Alessandro di Lello is looking to regain the 
T45/46 title he won at the inaugural edition after finishing second in 2014 
and third at the World Championships last year. 
 
Dos Santos faces London-based New Zealander Tim Prendergast, the 2004 
Paralympic 800m champion who shaved more than a minute from his personal 
best to bag a bronze in the 2015 T13 event. 
 
Gabriel Macchi of Portugal, the 2013 and 2014 bronze medallist, could be 
favourite in the the T11/12 event, the other race for visually impaired 
athletes. Japan's world number five Yutaka Kumagai and Colombia's London 
2012 silver medallist Elkin Alonso Serna Moreno are likely to provide the 
main opposition.
 
The women's T11/12 race features two very strong Japanese runners in Misato 
Michishita and Mihoko Nishijima who were third and fifth respectively last 
year after winning World Cup silver and bronze in 2014. Germany's Regina 
Vollbrecht also returns to London after clocking a T11 world record of 
3:26:18 to finish seventh in 2015.
 
Britain's hopes rest with Derek Rae in the T45/46 event for arm amputees 
and former wheelchair rugby player Rob Smith in the T51/52 race.
 
Rae, a former joiner from Scotland, who lost his arm in a motorocycle 
accident six years ago, took four minutes from his PB to finish fifth at 
the World Championships last year, while Smith, a multiple British record 
holder, took World Cup bronze in 2014 and was fourth at the World 
Championships in 2015. 
 
No fewer than 13 medallists from the 2015 Marathon World Championship will 
be in action, including all six podium finishers from the London Marathon's 
traditional T53/54 wheelchair races, which are again part of the IPC 
Athletics World Cup event. 
 
Virgin Money London Marathon Event Director Hugh Brasher welcomed the 
return of the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup in 2016. “After the success 
of IPC Athletics Marathon World Championships here last year, we are 
delighted to host the third edition of the World Cup, which will again 
feature many of the world's top para-athletes as they pursue London 
Marathon glory ahead of this September's Paralympic Games in Rio and next 
year's IPC Athletics World Championships in London.”
 
No fewer than five world records fell in the first two editions of the 
World Cup while four were broken in the World Championship races a year 
ago, and more could well be under threat in 2016.
 
IPC Athletics World Records set at the Virgin Money London Marathon
 
Men										
	T12	
	2:24:00	
	El Amin Chentouf	
	MAR	
	21-Apr-13	
T12
2:21:33
El Amin Chentouf
MAR
26-Apr-13
T42
3:15:53
Richard Whitehead
GBR
21-Apr-13
T46
2:26:54
Abderrahman Ait Khamouch
ESP
26-Apr-13


Women
T11
3:38:16
Ivonne Mosquera-Schmidt
USA
21-Apr-13
T11
3:36:04
Yumiko Konno
JPN
13-Apr-14
T11
3:26:18
Regina Vollbrecht
GER
26-Apr-15
T12
3:17:10
Maria Paredes Rodriguez
ESP
21-Apr-13
T12
2:58:23
Elena Pautova
RUS
26-Apr-15


2016 IPC Athletics World Cup Entrants

T11/12 Men
Elkin Alonso Serna Moreno
COL
T12
2:26:39
Gabriel Macchi
POR
T12
2:37:23
Yutaka Kumagai
JPN
T12
2:37:48
Igor Khavlin
RUS
T11
2:37:59
Joaquim Machado
POR
T11
2:41:53
Oleg Antipin
RUS
T12
2:41:56
Jorge Pina
POR
T12
2:43:31
Nicolas Bompard
FRA
T12
2:44:16
Masato Hatate
JPN
T12
2:48:43
Hiroaki Kajisa
JPN
T11
2:49:44
Nacereddine Kerfas
ALG
T12
2:53:54
Donald Balcom
USA
T12
2:55:45
Ralf Arnold
GER
T11
2:59:56


T11/12 Women
Misato Michishita
JPN
T12
2:59:21
Mihoko Nishijima
JPN
T12
3:11:33
Regina Vollbrecht
GER
T11
3:18:15
Yumiko Fuji
JPN
T12
3:22:32
Jin Zheng
CHN
T11
Debut


T13 Men
Aniceto Antonio dos Santos
BRA
T13
2:35:42
Tim Prendergast
NZL
T13
2:47:23


T45/46 Men
Alessandro di Lello
ITA
T46
2:31:06
Chaoyan Li
CHN
T46
2:32:28
Abdelhadi El Harti
MAR
T46
2:33:16
Mario Bauer
AUT
T46
2:39:30
Ahmed Farhat
MAR
T46
2:40:21
Derek Rae
GBR
T46
2:40:40
Ezequiel Marcelo da Costa
BRA
T46
2:41:35
Pedro Meza
MEX
T46
2:41:59
Manuel Mendes
POR
T46
2:44:35
Kim Yeonggap
KOR
T46
2:49:26


T51/52 Men
Santiago Sanz
ESP
T52
1:42:05
Raymond Martin
USA
T52
1:48:29
Rob Smith
GBR
T52
1:56:13
Cristian Torres
COL
T52
2:08:12
Stefan Strobel
GER
T51
2:28:19
 

Note: The men's and women's T53/54 wheelchair races are also part of the 
IPC Athletics World Cup. You can read the full preview here.

                                   ###