Wheelchair Champions Dominate Again
Kurt Fearnley and Edith Hunkeler defend their titles
No one felt the chilly, blustery conditions more than the men and women in the professional wheelchair race. They began their journey by climbing to the highest elevation of the course, on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, on a piercingly cold day with a prevailing headwind. Would the finish line ever come?
Last year's champions, Kurt Fearnley of Australia and Edith Hunkeler of Switzerland, forged ahead to win again, despite what the weather and their bodies were saying.
On the men's side, it was a close race out of Staten Island and through downtown Brooklyn. Side by side, Fearnley, 27, and Mexico's Aaron Gordian, 44, kept the crowd guessing as they vied for the top spot. It looked like defending champion and course record-holder Fearnley would not go it alone this year. Then Fearnley pushed ahead on a flat section at mile eight. An athlete known for his strength on the hills, Fearnley later noted that this move differed from his usual strategy. Yet once he took off, he was impossible to catch. Fearnley broke the tape in 1:44:50, a time far from his best in New York; clearly the weather was a major factor.
Gordian, the runner-up in 2006, and Japan's Masazumi Soejima, who was third in his New York debut last year, were then left to battle for the runner-up spot. They were tied at the half-marathon mark; Soejima, 38, then moved into second in Queens and held his place to finish in 1:46:10. Gordian was third in 1:46:57. Although Fearnley's pace was under four minutes per mile, his time was significantly slower than his 1:29:22 course record, set in 2006, and his margin of victory, one minute and 20 seconds, was slim by the standards he's set here. Still, after a gold-medal performance in the Paralympics marathon in Beijing a month ago, it's been a better year than even he'd hoped for.
Hunkeler, 36, took off from the starting line and never looked back. The Swiss Paralympic marathon gold medalist pulled off another win in 2:06:42, her fourth victory in four starts in New York, in spite of the strong wind that kept pulling her chair to the left. "I've never had a race like that," she said. "I felt well with my time because all of the athletes here had the same tough conditions."
Canadian Diane Roy and American Amanda McGrory paced each other through the halfway mark. McGrory, 22, the 2006 winner, took a slight lead after the half and held on; she finished second in 2:11:25. Australia's Christie Dawes took on Shelly Woods of Great Britain and Roy. Dawes beat Woods in a photo finish, while Roy took fifth, five seconds back.
A big difference between running and wheelchair racing is the equipment. For the wheelers, the rubber on their gloves and their tires loses its grip in cold conditions; in today's unusually low temperatures, this added to the labor of 26.2 miles.
With the season over for these athletes, and both Paralympic gold medalists having now become ING New York City Marathon 2008 champions as well, it's time to recuperate. Fearnley's celebrations will begin "maybe this afternoon, after I wash up," he said. Then he's flying back to Australia to enjoy a couple of weeks of rest and the month of "Movember," as he promotes a charity he quietly raised funds for two years ago, to support often-hidden men's health issues, such as depression and prostate cancer.
"New York is the pinnacle of my year," said Fearnley, "and I'm doing everything I can while I’m here."
