Boston Begins Marathon Season

The Boston Marathon has officially kicked off marathon season this week, with athletes giving top performances and repeat showings from previous years.

Taking place on 19 April, the 114th Boston Marathon saw South Africa's Ernst Van Dyk take the top position with an official time of 1:26.53 in the Men's Wheelchair race. Coming in second place was USA's Krige Schabort with a time of 1:26.56, just 0.03 seconds after Van Dyk. In third place was Japan's Kota Hokinoue, finishing also just seconds later with an official result of 1:27.05.

In the Women's Wheelchair race, Japan's Wakako Tsuchida finished first with her official time of 1:43.32. Coming in a few seconds later was Canada's Diane Roy with her time of 1:47.08, and USA's Amanda McGory with her time of 1:57.20.

Ernst Van Dyk also took the top position last year in the Boston Marathon, finishing at 1:33.29. Van Dyk is a Paralympian Ambassador, acting as an ambassador of the Paralympic Movement, in order to be role model for young people with and without a disability.

Following the Boston Marathon will be the Virgin London Marathon and the RheinEnergie Marathon in Bonn on 25 April.

For the Bonn Marathon, multiple Paralympic medal winning athlete Henry Wanyoike from Kenya will be participating in the half-marathon event. Wanyoike also took part in the RheinEnergie Marathon in Bonn last year, where he participated in the half-marathon event with a time of 1:14.56. He hopes to better his performance this year and bring home one of the top positions back to Kenya.

In last year's London Marathon, Paralympian Kurt Fearnley from Australia took the first position in the Men's Wheelchair race, with the winner from 2008 David Weir (GBR) following in second place. In the Women's Wheelchair race from last year, Paralympian Amanda McGrory (USA) took the top position, finishing at 1:50:39. Sandra Graf (SUI) took the second position.