Richard Whitehead, the world and Olympic champion blade runner, will compete in this year’s London marathon after being denied the chance in the Paralympics.
He was the first man on blades to run a sub-three hour marathon, and has a best of two hours 42 minutes.
But Whitehead was ruled out of the Olympic marathon last summer because there was no such event for his disability class, T42, for above-the-knee amputees competing on blades.
Instead he turned his attention to the track, memorably powering to gold in the 200m.
Also new to London will be an elite race for blind or nearly blind runners, many of whom will be accompanied by a guide. The new categories form the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup staged concurrently with the London Marathon for the first time as a legacy of last summer’s Paralympics.
