Weir's winning way on wheels

He’s without a doubt the closest thing that British Paralympic sport has to a superstar, albeit a reluctant one. Because, as Paul Carter reports, for wheelchair athlete David Weir, who now has an MBE to add to his glittering collection of medals, he will always be “just one of the boys”

When he crossed the finish line of the 2011 London Marathon in first place, he officially cemented his position as the most successful male wheelchair marathon athlete of all time.

It was the fifth time the 31-year-old from Wallington, London had claimed the title, something which Weir describes as an “amazing feeling”.

It was a victory made all the more sweet following the cruel twist of fate in the 2010 marathon, in which Weir suffered heartbreak when getting a double puncture after gaining a commanding lead with just a short distance left to go.

This year however, things went Weir’s way. He went into the final straight wheel to wheel with hero, rival and friend, 53-year-old veteran Heinz Frei of Switzerland. However, the trademark sprint finish once again came to the fore, and with just 300m left to go, Weir powered home for win number five.

So how did he feel this time around?

“I felt good all week and my preparations were perfect,” he says.

“Heinz stayed with me but I knew he’d make a surge at the end but thankfully I had enough. I’ve got a new chair and that has made a massive difference.”

That new chair has certainly provided him with a new lease of life. Costing over £4,000, the new state-of-the-art racing machine is described by Weir as being “like a Formula 1 car.”

For someone who has suffered terrible luck in recent years ahead of major competitions and championships, Weir now finally seems to have put problems with injuries and illness behind him, and is hitting devastating form.

With the only exception of a second place finish in the heats for the 500m at the recent World Championships in January, Weir has won every single race on the track and the road in which he has competed since January.

So, as one of the more senior members of the GB Paralympic squad going into 2012, has his appetite for competition diminished at all since those inauspicious early days?

“I have a tattoo on my chest that’s a Japanese symbol meaning ‘to win’, which pretty much sums me up as an athlete,” he says.

Along with the win in the London Marathon, Weir has been gathering medals at a rate of knots in recent months. He claimed victory over the 26-mile distance in New York back in November, before going on to decimate the competition at the IPC World Athletics Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand in January.

Weir took gold in the 800m, 1500m, and 5000m, and was favourite to also take the title in the marathon, but was among a host of athletes who withdrew over safety fears after organisers failed to ensure that the roads would be closed to traffic during the race.

As someone who has already won top honours at Paralympic Games – he claimed 800m and 1500m gold in Beijing in 2008, and silver and bronze in Athens four years earlier, what lies ahead for the man who will carry the flag for GB in 2012?

“I’ll definitely do the marathon in 2012 because my training is specifically geared towards that,” he says.

“I think about it all the time. London is always at the back of my mind. To win the marathon down The Mall would be the pinnacle of my career. What better way to bow out?

“Hopefully I’ll stay fit and give it a go. To win gold in London would be a real dream come true.”

One thing is for sure, it would be a brave, and perhaps foolish person who’d bet against him doing so.