Marcel Hug wins eighth wheelchair title as London Marathon posts record 56,640 finishers

Marcel Hug matched David Weir’s London Marathon mark on Sunday, winning the men’s wheelchair race for an eighth time in 1:24:13. (paralympic.org) (olympics.com) The 40-year-old Swiss racer led from the start, pulled clear after 10 kilometers and finished more than four and a half minutes ahead of runner-up Luo Xingchuan of China, who clocked 1:28:46 on his London debut. (paralympic.org) David Weir, the British great whose eight London wheelchair wins Hug has now equaled, finished third in 1:29:23 and collected his 22nd podium in his 27th consecutive London Marathon. (paralympic.org) In the women’s wheelchair race, Catherine Debrunner took her fourth London title in 1:38:29 after a late sprint near Buckingham Palace. Tatyana McFadden finished five seconds back in 1:38:34, with Manuela Schaer third in 1:41:21. (paralympic.org) The win was Debrunner’s third straight in London, extending a run that has made the Swiss pair the defining wheelchair names of this race in the mid-2020s. London Marathon Events had promoted Hug’s attempt to draw level with Weir before the start. (paralympic.org) (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) The wheelchair races unfolded inside a much bigger day for the event. Organizers said more than 59,000 people were expected on the Start Line after a world-record 1.13 million ballot applications for 2026. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) London came into the weekend already holding the marathon finisher record from 2025, when 56,640 runners and walkers crossed the line on The Mall. Organizers also said the 2026 field included a record 1,900-plus participants with a disability in the mass event. (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 1) (londonmarathonevents.co.uk 2) The elite able-bodied races turned the same Sunday into a record book. Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30, the first sub-two-hour men’s marathon in a race setting, and Tigst Assefa won the women’s race in a women-only world record 2:15:41. (olympics.com) (londonmarathonevents.co.uk) Hug said he does not focus much on statistics, but called it “a great standard” to equal Weir in London. On a day built around mass participation and elite records, his race added another familiar result at the front. (paralympic.org)