Woods takes silver in New York

By Paul Carter

British wheelchair athlete Shelly Woods had to settle for second place in this year’s New York marathon.

Woods (pictured, centre), 21, from Blackpool, finished in a time of 1:54:19, taking the silver for the second successive year.
The race was won by Switzerland’s Edith Hunkeler, who set a new course record at 1:52:38.

The victory marked a fine return to form for Hunkeler, after a crash at the 2006 World Championships almost ended her racing career.
Woods told Disability Now: “It was a great race. Everybody was there, it was like a world championship showdown, so to finish second, I’m happy and to beat all those girls but one was really good.

“Edith Hunkeler is pushing very well and dropped me on the final climb in the last three kilometres. It hurt.”

“I’d really like to conquer New York, I think it’s the toughest marathon in the world. So after my end-of-season break is over, it’s back to training.”
In the men’s race, Australian Kurt Fearnley took the title for the second year running, crossing the line in 1:33:58.

David Weir, who beat Fearnley into second at the London marathon, was absent from the starting line-up as he continues to recover from the glandular fever which kept him out of the World Championships in Osaka.

Another notable absentee was reigning world record-holder, Ernst Van Dyk from South Africa. Van Dyk’s racing chair was lost for the second time this year on the flight from Johannesburg. He said: “The New York marathon had been my target to ‘save’ my season. I had won every single race I have entered for in the last four months, setting a personal best of 1:23:22 last weekend in Japan for the marathon.”

He said the earlier blunder had cost him a huge chunk of his annual income, through lost prize money, and that the New York marathon had been “a big opportunity to save a disastrous financial year”.