Canada’s Cassidy wins wheelchair race
Canada’s Joshua Cassidy was the surprise winner Monday in the men’s wheelchair race at the Boston Marathon.
The 27-year-old from Oakville, Ont., set a world- and course-record time of one hour 18 minutes 25 seconds for the 42.195-kilometre distance. South African Ernst Van Dyk set the record of 1:18:27 in 2004 on the Boston course.
Australia’s Kurt H. Fearnley was a distant second in 1:21:39 and Kota Hokinoue of Japan was third in 1:23:26.
Cassidy led from the five-kilometre mark. When the Paralympian reached the top of the course’s Heartbreak Hill (32 kilometres), he started to focus on breaking the records.
“Once I got to the top of Heartbreak, I knew I could win the race,” Cassidy said. “So off I went, battling on my own the rest of the way to see if I could get the record.”
Weeks after his birth, Cassidy was found to have neuroblastoma (cancer in the spine and abdomen). A double leg amputee athlete, he earned $15,000 U.S. for winning the men’s race and a bonus of $10,000 for a world-best time.
On the women’s wheelchair side, Diane Roy of Sherbrooke, Que., finished third behind winner Shirley Reilly of the U.S. and Japan’s Wakako Tsuchida.
Reilly finished in 1:37:36, one second ahead of defending champion Tsuchida and five minutes ahead of Roy.