Debrunner and Hug triumph again in 2024 Chicago Marathon Wheelchair races.
The Bank of America Chicago Marathon once again was filled with personal records, historic finishes and inspirational moments, including who won the iconic 2024 Chicago Marathon.
Swiss para-athletes Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner once again showed their class at the marathon in Chicago, repeating their victories from last year.
Marcel Hug, also of Switzerland, won his fifth victory at Chicago on Sunday (and third consecutive win), finishing in 1:25:54 and holding off persistent attacks by American rival Daniel Romanczuk (who finished four seconds behind Hug, in 1:25:58, and who has two victories on this course) and Tomoki Suzuki of Japan (who finished third, in 1:26:05). Romanczuk won gold in the 5,000m wheelchair race at the Paralympics in Paris earlier this year.
Canada’s Josh Cassidy finished 10th.
It was the 38-year-old from Thurgau's fifth victory in the prestigious race in the US state of Illinois after 2016, 2017, 2022 and 2023. Hug missed his own course record from the previous year by a good three minutes in the tactical race with a time of 1:25:54 hours.
Catherine Debrunner won by a wide margin and in a course record of 1:36:12. This was just a few weeks after she won no fewer than five gold medals at the Paralympics in Paris, on the track and in the marathon. Manuela Shär, also of Switzerland, finished about two and a half minutes back in 1:39:03, with the U.S.’s Tatyana McFadden third in 1:41:59.
Debrunner won her debut marathon at Berlin in 2022 and is a two-time World Para Athletics Championships medallist. Last year she received the 2023 Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award.
As at the Paralympics in Paris and the marathon in Berlin, Debrunner was in a league of her own. The 29-year-old beat her compatriot Manuela Schär into second place by almost three minutes and set a course record of 1:36:12 in her eighth victory in her ninth marathon at major level.
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