Four races in Paralympic marathon

LONDON, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 23: Hugh Robertson, Minister of Sport and the Olympics and Debbie Jevans, Director of Sport at London 2012 attend the game between Great Britain and Angola during day one of the London Handball Cup at the Handball Arena on November 23, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

London, Sep 8 (IANS) London Paralympics’ organising committee director Debbie Jevans said that there will be four races in Sunday’s Paralympic marathon here.

“We have four races, three men and one woman. They comprise the men’s T12, which is for visually impaired athletes, and we have 19 entries across 13 countries and regions. We then have the men’s T46, which is for amputees, and that’s 11 entries across eight countries and regions,” Jevans said Friday, reports Xinhua.

“Then we have the men and women’s T54, which is wheelchair marathon, and for the men we have 32 entries from 13 countries and regions and for the women 12 entries across six countries and regions,” he added.

“We’ll start on Sunday at eight o’clock with the men’s T12 and T46, and we actually start those races at the same time. The reason for that is that the fastest runners across both events are of a very similar standard, and the athletes wear different coloured bibs so you can distinguish between the two.”

On changes to the marathon route from the Olympic Games, Jevans said: “There is no turn on Westminster Bridge, and we’ve also amended the route slightly around Leadenhall Market, to ensure we avoid the cobblestones in that area.”