Schär sets sights on perfect ten in Tokyo
Manuela Schär will bid to win her tenth successive Abbott World Marathon Major on March 1 when she mounts the defense of her Tokyo Marathon title.
The 2020 curtain raiser to the AbbottWMM season will mark 678days since the double AbbottWMM women's wheelchair series champion has tasted defeat over the 26.2-mile distance.
Schär's last loss was at the Virgin Money London Marathon in April 2018. Her winning streak got underway in Berlin that year, where she broke the world record, and she has remained untouchable ever since, scooping the Series XII title with a perfect seven victories in that campaign and adding the 2019 Bank of America Chicago and TCS New York City Marathons to her string of successes as Series XIII got underway.
The 35-year-old capped an incredible year in 2019 by smashing her own world record in the Oita wheelchair marathon in November.
The Kriens-based racer also confirmed she is heading back to both the Boston and Virgin Money London Marathons in the spring as she attempts to extend her already commanding lead at the top of the Series XIII leaderboard.
She will renew her rivalries in Tokyo with American stars Tatyana McFadden, Susannah Scaroni and Amanda McGrory, as well as the last woman other than Schär to win a Majors, Australia's Madison de Rozario.
De Rozario will join Jordi Madera and Britain's Johnboy Smith as new Six Star Finishers upon completion of Tokyo.
Daniel Romanchuk will also be seeking to continue his dominant start to the series in Tokyo. It remains one of only two Majors he has yet to score victory in after coming a distant second to Marcel Hug on his Tokyo debut in 2019.
That defeat did little to stop the 21-year-old from claiming his first overall men's wheelchair series crown, winning in all three American races as well as London.
He, too, is also confirmed for Boston and London.
With Tokyo setting the stage for the Paralympic Games in the summer of this year, there is added spice to this year's wheelchair races as the athletes seek to put down a marker in the city to which many of them will be returning in the hunt for gold medals.
2020 Tokyo Marathon Elite Wheelchair Field- women
Name Country Personal best Manuela Schär SUI 1:28:17 Susannah Scaroni USA 1:30:42 Tatyana McFadden USA 1:31:30 Amanda McGrory USA 1:33:13 Christie Dawes AUS 1:37:14 Madison De Rozario AUS 1:39:22
2020 Tokyo Marathon Elite Wheelchair field - men
Name Country Personal best Marcel Hug SUI 1:18.04 Ernst van Dyk RSA 1:18.04 Josh Cassidy CAN 1:18.25 Masazumi Soejima JPN 1:18:50 Hiroyuki Yamamoto JPN 1:19.32 Hiroki Nishida JPN 1:20.28 Kota Hokinue JPN 1:20:52 Daniel Romanchuk USA 1:21.36 Masayuki Higuchi JPN 1:22:02 Jordi Madera ESP 1:22:10 Tomoki Suzuki JPN 1:22:55 Ryota Yoshida JPN 1:23:18 Choke Yasuoka JPN 1:23:23 Sho Watanabe JPN 1:24:00 Takashi Yoshida JPN 1:24:04 Yunqiang Dai JPN 1:29:06 Johnboy Smith JPN 1:29:44 Ryuichi Kawamuro JPN 1:29:35 Koki Takemura JPN 1:35:53 Ken Sato JPN 1:41:29
2020 Boston Marathon Elite Wheelchair Team - women
Name Country Personal best Manuela Schär SUI 1:28:17 Susannah Scaroni USA 1:30:42 Tatyana McFadden USA 1:31:30 Amanda McGrory USA 1:33:13 Katrina Gerhard USA 1:36:26 Jenna Fesemyer USA 1:37:02 Christie Dawes AUS 1:37:14 Shelly Woods GBR 1:37:44 Margriet Van Den Broek NED 1:38:33 Madison De Rozario AUS 1:39:22 Arielle Rausin USA 1:40:51
2020 Boston Marathon Elite Wheelchair Team - Men
Name Country Personal best Marcel Hug SUI 1:18.04 Ernst van Dyk RSA 1:18.04 Josh Cassidy CAN 1:18.25 Masazumi Soejima JPN 1:18:50 Hiroki Nishida JPN 1:20.28 Kota Hokinue JPN 1:20:52 Aaron Pike USA 1:20:59 Daniel Romanchuk USA 1:21.36 Joshua George USA 1:21:47 Rafael Botello Jiménez ESP 1:22:09 Jordi Madera ESP 1:22:10 Patrick Monahan IRL 1:22:23 Krige Schabort USA 1:23:44 Takashi Yoshida JPN 1:24:04 James Senbeta USA 1:24:27 Simon Lawson GBR 1:25:06 David Weir GBR 1:26:17 Sho Watanabe JPN 1:24:00 Ryuichi Kawamuro JPN 1:29:35 Johnboy Smith GBR 1:29:44
