Swiss para-athlete wins an eighth wheelchair race – and sixth on the trot – in the British capital to match Weir’s achievement.

Marcel Hug was a class apart in the men’s wheelchair race in the TCS London Marathon on Sunday (April 26).

The Swiss ‘silver bullet’ cruised home in 84:12 to take victory in style as Luo Xingchuan of China finished a distant runner-up in 88:45 with Britain's David Weir third in 89:21.

For Hug it makes it a record-equalling eight London Marathon wins and puts him alongside Weir as the most successful para-athlete in the event’s history.

He has now won 40 world marathon majors races. The Swiss racer has also won the last three Paralympic marathons and holds the world record of 1:17:47, set in Oita, Japan, in 2021.

In London, Hug is the course record holder with 83:44 from 2023 and has now won six consecutive races dating back to 2021. He also won in 2014 and 2016 to put his current tally of wins at eight.

For Weir, it was his 27th London Marathon and came after a week spent travelling to Switzerland and back to fix a dorsal fin that had broken off his racing chair in the Boston Marathon at the start of the week.

The women’s race was much closer with Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland surging away from America's Tatyana McFadden in the closing stages to win in 98:29 as Manuela Schar of Switzerland was third.

Eden Rainbow-Cooper won the Boston Marathon six days earlier but didn't have the best of luck in London as a puncture caused her to miss the start.