Swiss stars shine in Berlin sun

The pre-race form guide was not wrong.

Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner delivered on the mid-week predictions that they would both end the 50th BMW BERLIN-MARATHON as they had stared it, as champions of this magnificent race.

The Paralympic champions of the marathon delivered two dominant performances to reaffirm Switzerland’s position as the powerhouse of wheelchair marathon racing.

Hug now has four wins from five scoring races in Series XVI of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, while Debrunner has leapfrogged her fellow Swiss woman Manuela Schär at the top of the leaderboard after adding Berlin to her London victory in April.

In the men’s race, Great Britain’s David Weir was able to stay in touch with his long-time adversary until the 20km mark before the eight-time winner of this race began to open an advantage.

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By 25km, his lead was 44 seconds, and title number nine was coming into view for the 38-year-old. At the finish, Hug was one minute and 47 seconds in front of Weir, winning in 1:27:18, with the Netherlands’ Geert Schipper taking third place in 1:30:33.

Debrunner was only able to shake off the attentions of America’s Susannah Scaroni after 30km that had seen the pair locked together. The reigning champion then unleashed an attack that eventually handed her victory by two minutes and 38 seconds.

Both athletes were also the fastest through the Flying 400 segment of the course, securing them an additional eight points to the 25 they receive for winning.

With two races left in the series this year, their rivals face a fight to wrench the AbbottWMM silverware from Swiss hands.