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IPC World Cup Preview: Champions return to World Cup action

Five inaugural winners of the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup will return to the London Marathon in 2014 to defend their titles as the pioneering initiative in disability running expands into its second year with a new category of wheelchair race.

After hosting what was widely acclaimed to be the greatest Paralympic Games ever in summer 2012, London was chosen by the IPC to launch the first Marathon World Cup last April, and events for visually and limb impaired competitors were added to a race-day programme that had long included the London Marathon's own wheelchair contests.

Last year's series of races produced no fewer than four official IPC world records and in July last year the London Marathon signed a four-year agreement to hold the World Cup in the British capital until at least 2017 when London hosts the IPC Athletics World Championships.

Hugh Brasher, race director of the Virgin Money London Marathon, welcomed the deal, saying:

"Following the spectacular performances of IPC athletes in the 2013 London Marathon, we are naturally very pleased to continue working with the IPC to develop and raise the profile of the para-athletes in all categories, particularly over the next four years in the run-up to the 2017 World Championships in London. We feel that we can work with IPC Athletics to improve standards, ultimately developing the sport of elite marathon running within these classes. We strongly believe this is a natural progression from the work we have already done within elite wheelchair marathon racing."

There will be five IPC World Cup races this year, in addition to the two traditional T53/54 wheelchair contests - T11-13 men's and women's races for visually impaired athletes; T42/43 and T44-46 men's races for athletes with limb impairments; and a new wheelchair race for T51/52 men.

Among the returning champions is Moroccan El Amin Chentouf who beat the London 2012 Paralympic silver and bronze medallists on his marathon debut 12 months' ago to win the men's T11-13, breaking the world record for his T12 class in the process.

The man from Rabat crossed the line in 2:24:00, taking 50 seconds from the record set by Spaniard Alberto Suarez Laso at the London Paralympics just eight months earlier. The Paralympic 5000m champion won by more than four minutes from Abderrahim Zhiou of Tunisia, the London 2012 marathon bronze medallist, with Gabriel Macchi of Portugal third.

Chentouf went on to win a hat-trick of golds at the IPC World Championships in Lyon last summer, taking the 5000m and 10,000m titles on the track before winning the marathon by 11 minutes.

While Chentouf will be a clear favourite to retain the crown, it won't be an easy ride for the 34-year-old as he again faces Zhiou and Macchi, plus Andrea Cionna, Italy's T11 world record holder, and Manuel Garnica of Spain, who was fourth last year.

Also in the field is Bob Matthews, the 52-year-old who was a multi-Paralympic medal-winner for Britain at five Games between 1984 and 2000 before he emigrated to New Zealand 10 years ago. Matthews, a T11 runner, won a Paralympic silver medal in the marathon in Sydney 14 years ago.

Spain's Maria del Carmen Paredes Rodriguez (a T12 athlete, then known as Paredes Garcia) won the women's race for visually impaired runners 12 months ago in 3:17:10 with USA's three-times Boston winner Ivonne Mosquera-Schmidt (T11) second in 3:38:16 - both official world records, although well short of the personal bests they have set on non-licensed courses.

That pair will both race again this year, although with added competition from a quartet of useful Japanese runners. They include Misato Michishita, who ranked number one in the world last year for T12 athetes with 3:06:32 from the Hofu Marathon, and Mihoko Nishijima, who ranked second after running 3:15:36.

Britain's Richard Whitehead was a solo winner of the T42/43 race in 3:15:53 (also an official world record for T42s) and the ‘Lionheart' will be looking to improve this time as his personal best is considerably quicker at 1:42:52.

Whitehead had a busy year in 2013. After London he went on to add the world T42 200m title to his Paralympic gold at that event, and then ran 40 marathons in 40 days from John O'Groats to Land's End to raise money for charity.

The T44-46 will be another competitive contest as the 2013 winner, Alessandro di Lello of Italy, faces two of the men he beat 12 months' ago - Spain's Jose Antonio Castilla and Brazil's Paralympic champion Tito Sena.

Di Lello added the World Championships T46 title to his World Cup win last summer and will be confident of retaining his crown in London. Sena is still the quickest man on paper thanks to his winning time of 2:30:40 at the London Paralympics and he'll be looking to get on the podium after finishing fourth last year.

Santiago ‘Santi' Sanz is the quickest man in the new T51/52 wheelchair race. The Spaniard was the world marathon champion in 2006, when he won four golds altogether, and he has a PB of 1:46:09, 10 minutes quicker than any of his competitors.

His rivals include the multi-medalled American Ray Martin, who won four track golds at the London Paralympics and five titles at the IPC World Championships in Lyon last summer, the first ever to do so.

Domestic hopes in this race rest with Rob Smith who holds six British T52 records, including the half marathon and marathon. A former wheelchair rugby player, Smith won three Dubai Marathons in a row from 2011 to 2013.

Richard Whitehead and Bob Matthews will appear at an IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup press conference at the Tower Hotel, London, on Friday 11 April. Click here for details.