Sports
Wheelchair racer Marcel Hug looking to make London Marathon history
Swiss silver bullet is aiming to equal David Weir’s feat of eight London Marathon victories in the 2026 race on April 26.
The great Marcel Hug will headline the elite wheelchair fields at the 2026 TCS London Marathon and bid to draw level with British Paralympic hero David Weir with a historic eighth win.
Already the greatest marathon wheelchair racer in history, victory at this year’s TCS London Marathon, on Sunday 26 April, will take Hug to a record-equalling eight London Marathon wins and put him alongside Weir as the most successful athlete in the event’s history.
Intriguingly, Weir will be one of the athletes looking to find a way to stop Hug’s seemingly unstoppable path to history. Also looking to get the better of the man known as the Silver Bullet are last year’s second and third-placed athletes, Tomoki Suzuki (JPN) and Jetze Plat (NED), plus the 2019 London Marathon champion, Daniel Romanchuk (USA).
Hug’s marathon racing record is unparalleled. He has won 39 Abbott World Marathon major races, including the BMW Berlin Marathon a staggering 10 times. The Swiss has also won the last three Paralympic Games marathons and holds the world record of 1:17:47, set in Oita, Japan, in 2021.
In London, Hug is the course record holder (1:23:44, 2023) and is on an unsurpassed sequence of five consecutive wins dating back to 2021. He also won in 2014 and 2016 to put his current tally of wins at seven – one away from Weir’s current record.
Hug, 40, said: “I look forward every year to taking part in the TCS London Marathon. Of course it is one of the most famous marathons in the world but, for me, it is more than a race, it is an organisation that has done so much to put wheelchair racing and us as athletes at the very heart of the event.
“We now race for the same prize money as the other elite athlete races which has been a huge leap forward for equality and it is for this reason that I am proud to have enjoyed the success I have here and to be one win away from a legend like David Weir is incredible.
“But records are not something I will be thinking about on the Start Line on Sunday 26 April. My focus will just be on my race and performing to the highest level I can on the day.”
Hug and Weir have enjoyed an enduring rivalry. Weir’s eight London wins span 16 years (between 2002 and 2018) and, despite now being 46, he remains one of Hug’s closest challengers. He finished second behind the Swiss in their most recent meeting, at the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon.
Weir said: “Marcel is an incredible athlete operating at the peak of his powers. Of course, I will do all I can to stop him from drawing level with me but he is, arguably, the most dominant athlete in their sport anywhere in the world right now and will go down as one of the all-time greats.”
Hugh Brasher, London Marathon Events CEO, said: “Marcel Hug and David Weir are two greats of not just wheelchair racing and Paralympic sport, but sport as a whole. When David reached eight London Marathon wins in 2018 to become the most decorated athlete in our history, I expected that record to last for many, many years. But Marcel has taken wheelchair racing to another level and his five successive wins here in London is evidence of that. Whatever the outcome on Sunday 26 April, David and Marcel will forever be legends in London Marathon history.”
In the elite women’s wheelchair race, another dominant Swiss athlete heads up the field: Catherine Debrunner.
Debrunner has won the last two TCS London Marathons and was just seconds away from the world record in the 2025 race when she set a course record of 1:34:18.
Previous champions Manuela Schär and Tatyana McFadden have also been confirmed for this year alongside British talent Eden Rainbow Cooper.
As has Susannah Scaroni (USA), who finished runner-up to Debrunner in London but was the most successful racer on the Abbott World Marathon Majors circuit overall in 2025, winning races in Boston, Sydney, Chicago and New York.
In 2024, the TCS London Marathon became the first marathon in the world to make its prize money for wheelchair and non-disabled elite athletes exactly the same. Today’s wheelchair field announcement is the second day of the 2026 TCS London Marathon Elite Week. On Wednesday January 28 the full elite women’s field will be announced.
2026 TCS London Marathon elite men wheelchair entries
- Rafael Botello Jimenez (ESP)
- Josh Cassidy (CAN)
- Evan Correll (USA)
- Sean Frame (GBR)
- Kota Hokinoue (JPN)
- Marcel Hug (SUI)
- Jin Hula (CHN )
- Hiroki Kishizawa (JPN)
- Simon Lawson (GBR)
- Nathan Maguire (GBR)
- Ludwig Malter (AUT)
- Michael McCabe (GBR)
- Patrick Monahan (IRL)
- Hiroki Nischida (JPN)
- Jetze Plat (NED)
- Jason Robinson (USA)
- Daniel Romanchuk (USA)
- Geert Schipper (NED )
- Brian Sieman (USA)
- John Boy Smith (GBR)
- Tomoki Suzuki (JPN)
- Luo Xingchuan (CHN)
- Sho Watanabe (JPN)
- David Weir (GBR)
2026 TCS London Marathon elite women wheelchair entries
- Noemi Alphonso (MRI)
- Christie Dawes (AUS)
- Catherine Debrunner (SUI)
- Madison de Rozario (AUS)
- Vanessa De Souza (BRA)
- Patricia Eachus (SUI)
- Tatyana McFadden (USA)
- Merle Menje (GER)
- Tsubasa Nakamine (JPN)
- Eden Rainbow Cooper (GBR)
- Susannah Scaroni (USA)
- Manuela Schar (SUI)
- Wakako Tsuchida (JPN)
- Michelle Wheeler (USA)
- Linden Williamson (USA)
- Zhou Zhaoqian (CHN)
- Tian Yajuan (CHN)
