London Marathon’s ‘beautiful’ move for full equality praised by athletes

The London Marathon has develop into the primary main marathon occasion to supply equal prize cash for able-bodied and wheelchair athletes on the 2024 race.

The wheelchair races in London had been already the richest on the earth, however a rise of $US54,500 ($83,000) to the general prize pool creates parity with what’s on supply for able-bodied runners.

Elite wheelchair race winners will earn $US55,000, with second place profitable $US30,000 and third place $US22,500.

Two-time London Marathon winner Australian Madison de Rozario mentioned the transfer was a sport changer for incapacity athletes.

“We frequently say that sport is a mirror to society, but it surely can be the place to begin for a lot bigger change and that is what the London Marathon is doing right here,” she mentioned.

“This determination does not simply have an effect on the athletes lining up in London in April, it has an overflow impact to not simply how each different occasion values athletes with a incapacity, however how we view the 15 per cent of the worldwide inhabitants residing with incapacity.

“Sport has an infinite duty to group and the London Marathon is on the forefront of doing that justice.

“It’s setting a completely new commonplace and I can not wait to see what which means for para sport going ahead.

“Realizing {that a} era of wheelchair racers are going to get to return right into a sport and by no means query their worth or their place is gorgeous.”

The London Marathon, one of many six World Marathon Majors, has been hosted yearly since 1981, with a wheelchair race a part of the occasion since 1983.

Occasion director Hugh Brasher mentioned the occasion was “proud” of the way it has “championed members with disabilities”.

“We’re delighted to proceed our dedication to incapacity sport with this landmark transfer that ensures the prize cash obtainable to our elite wheelchair athletes is precisely the identical as for these within the able-bodied elite races,” he mentioned.

“We now have made nice strides in recent times in the direction of our ambition to make the London Marathon essentially the most various and equitable marathon on the earth and that is one other vital step in the direction of attaining that purpose.”

This 12 months’s London Marathon will happen on Sunday, April 21 with three Australians named within the elite wheelchair discipline.

Earlier winner and defending champion de Rozario — one among two Australians alongside Kurt Fearnley to win the London Marathon — is joined by three-time Paralympic medallist Christie Dawes within the girls’s race, whereas Jake Lappin will race within the males’s occasion.