11 September 2012

IPC Athletics and the Virgin London Marathon have confirmed that the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup will be held in next year’s 2013 Virgin London Marathon, which takes place on Sunday 21 April.

This new event will feature IPC Athletics Classes T42-T46, and T11-T13 athletes, for both men and women.

Hugh Brasher, race director of the Virgin London Marathon said: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to further develop events within marathon running, especially after the amazing exploits of our athletes over the last 10 days.

“It was superb to have our 2012 London Marathon wheelchair champions David Weir and Shelly Woods bring home gold and silver in the T54 London 2012 Paralympic Games marathons and this will be a great legacy from London 2012.

“Over the next five years, in the lead up to the World Championships in London in 2017, we feel we can really work with IPC Athletics to improve standards and help develop the sport of elite marathon running within these classes. We believe this is a natural progression from the work we have done within elite wheelchair marathon racing.’’

Xavier Gonzalez, CEO of IPC Athletics added: “This is fantastic news and I would like to thank the organisers for their support, the profile of para-marathon running will be increased by this partnership and I look forward to the first event next year.”