On whether he can beat Hug on Sunday:
“I don’t think anyone can stop him at the moment – maybe Superman. I tried all year last year [to beat him]; it’s just mind blowing to see what he’s doing at the moment. Age is not on my side, but I’ve had a really good winter, and Boston would have shown that, I think.
“I’ll give it my best [on Sunday] and try and compete with Marcel and the rest of the guys – because it’s a strong field, it’s a very strong field.
On whether he’d be proud to share the record of London Marathon wins with Marcel:
“Yeah, of course. You know it couldn’t go to a better person if he gets it on Sunday. We’re good friends; I’ve trained with him and I’ve seen how dedicated he is to the sport and what he’s done over the years to make the sport better. Everyone’s getting faster because of him.”
On his Mini London Marathon memories:
“It’s where I started. The main [London] Marathon is where I first saw wheelchairs on TV. I said to my parents that I wanted to do it, and they said, ‘Well you can’t do 26 miles, you’re eight years old,’ so we did some hunting around and my parents found out there was a Mini [London] Marathon, and the rest is history.
“I did a few other sports, but I just got this different buzz [from wheelchair racing] that I didn’t get from basketball or tennis or anything like that. I just knew that I needed to do an individual sport. I won it, I think, seven times.
“I always dreamt of winning the London Marathon; that was the only race that I ever wanted to win, so when I got the opportunity to win it, it was a dream come true.”
On racing in Boston on Monday:
“I tried to keep up with Marcel in the first few miles, and I was in a good place in second. I had quite a good lead [on third] and then at about 8.3 miles the dorsal fin snapped and catapulted off into the crowd.
“I thought, well, maybe I can push like this for the rest of the marathon, but it didn’t go that way. I was pushing with one arm, resting, pushing with the other arm, and when it came to the hills, I was actually resting my head on the frame of the chair to hold me in. I did that for the whole race, so it wasn’t the best race for me.”
“I landed [in the UK] on Tuesday morning, drove to Switzerland from Heathrow and got there at one in the morning. And the guys were brilliant there on Wednesday. They got me in and out of the chair to make sure it was perfect before I left. I got here [London] at 10 o’clock last night [Thursday]. I’ve done about 1000 miles and 16 hours in the car with a friend, so a good road trip – and a trip to Marcel’s gym!”
“I went and did a bit of a ski erg, because obviously I didn’t have a chair. It was great, just to get that little bit of soreness out of my arms from Boston because it was a different technique that I had to use to finish the race. The chair’s all fixed now; I went out for push this morning and it feels good again.”
