Can Tatyana McFadden complete marathon Grand Slam?

The wheelchair race will offer a total prize purse of US $103,000 plus time bonuses, with $15,000 prizes for the men’s and women’s champions.

The 2013 New York City Marathon on Sunday (3 November) will feature 27 Paralympians and 18 World Championship individual medal winners, including the USA’s Tatyana McFadden who has already won the three other major marathons this year in Boston, London and Chicago.

McFadden, who also won gold in all six of her events at July’s IPC Athletics World Championships, is aiming to become the first person to capture the marathon Grand Slam before she turns her focus to qualifying for the Sochi 2014 Paralympics in cross-country skiing.

She previously won the New York City Marathon in 2010, and she finished third in 2011 and sixth in 2009.

Challenging McFadden will be Switzerland’s Manuela Schar, who is on a roll this season, having won the marathon event at this year’s World Championships and the Berlin Marathon. She finished second to McFadden at last month’s Chicago Marathon.

American Amanda McGrory, a two-time champion in the event and course-record holder, will also be at the start line, as will her teammate and London 2012 Paralympic marathon gold medallist, Shirley Reilly.

On the men’s side, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug, the winner of the marathon at last summer’s IPC Athletics World Championships, will line up alongside three past New York City Marathon champions. South Africa’s Ernst van Dyk, Australia’s Kurt Fearnley and Japan’s Masazumi Soejima will all contend for the title.

Fearnley is a four-time New York champion who swept to consecutive victories in 2006 to 2009. His 2006 winning time of 1:29:22 is still the course record, and this year he won his second London Marathon and finished fifth in Boston.

Soejima is the returning New York champion from 2011, when he became the first Japanese winner of any division of the New York City Marathon.

Van Dyk, who won the Chicago Marathon last month, has won a record nine Boston Marathon titles and was the 2005 New York winner.

The wheelchair race will offer a total prize purse of US $103,000 plus time bonuses, with $15,000 prizes for the men’s and women’s champions.

The New York City Marathon will be shown live on ESPN2 in the USA, beginning at 9:00 (EST) and will be available live online via WatchESPN.