Another for Hug, a first by Rainbow-Cooper
Not even a head-over-wheels crash in Newton could keep Marcel Hug from shattering his own Boston Marathon course record in the men’s wheelchair division Monday.
Hug’s 1:15:33 wire-to-wire victory — 1:33 faster than last year’s course mark — was his seventh Boston win overall. He is three shy of matching Ernst Van Dyk’s record of 10 here, but the Swiss athlete remains the standard-setter worldwide in his event.
“It’s simple — I love Boston,” said Hug. “I love to ride here, thank you very much. It’s always a pleasure to come here. It’s a great course, fast course, great organization.”
As he made the right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue after the Newton fire station, Hug made a technical mistake that caused him to topple over on his left side and slide into a barrier.
But the miscue cost him no more than five or six seconds before he righted himself and proceeded on his record pace.
After the race, he was not positive about the cause of the crash. He felt fortunate it did not become more than a side note on another record day.
“My guess is I had too much weight with my hand on the steering, so it didn’t steer properly,” said Hug. “Luckily I didn’t fall out of my racing chair.
“My first thought was hopefully the chair was OK, nothing broken. Then I just tried to push back up on both wheels and accelerate as fast as possible, because at this moment I knew I was on schedule for the course record. I still believed it was possible to break it.”
That belief was correct. He continued on with no more barriers in front of him and nobody closing the gap behind him.
“It was a time trial from the beginning,” said Hug. “From the start, it was hard to tell the other competitors on my neck, so I tried to go as fast as possible. I think I even had a speed record downhill as a time trial, so it was really tough. Fortunately, I got a good run in at a good pace.”
Equally if not more impressive than the 5:04 gap the 38-year-old Hug created over second-place finisher Daniel Romanchuk (2019 and 2022 champion) is how Hug has continued to chisel away at his own championship performances in Boston.
In his first victory in 2015, Hug won with a 1:29:53 time — 14:20 slower than this winning time nine years later.
Last year, Hug’s 1:17:06 broke his course record set in 2017 by just over a minute.
The women’s wheelchair race featured a 1:35:11 victory from a new and unexpected name, 22-year-old Eden RainbowCooper, who became Great Britain’s first Boston champion in the division.
“It means everything to me to be able to do my country proud,” said Rainbow-Cooper.
Rainbow-Cooper finished in seventh place here last year. She went on to finish second at Berlin last year, then second again at Tokyo this year.
Boston marked her first major marathon victory.
“I just couldn’t believe it, if I’m honest,” said Rainbow-Cooper, wiping away tears in the moments after her victory. “My first marathon was just over two years ago, so to have such a large progression in such a short amount of time, it’s beyond my wildest dreams.”
Switzerland’s Manuela Schar, a three-time champion, finished in second place, 1:30 behind Rainbow-Cooper.