KURT Fearnley was not able to pick up the sixth New York Marathon crown of his wheelchair racing career on Sunday, but the Carcoar producy still added to his impressive resume at the event.
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The honours in the 2018 edition went to form 20-year-old Daniel Romanchuk, the American winning a three-way sprint to the line ahead of the more experienced Marcel Hug and David Weir. He clocked a one hour, 36 minutes, 21 seconds effort.
Fearnley followed in the next two-man group and ended up fifth in 1:40.23. Though the time was well outside of his own race record – a 1:29.22 when winning in 2016 – it continued his run of finishing in the top five.
In his 12 New York Marathon starts, Fearnley has five wins, another five podiums and two fifth placings.
The pace was hot early in Sunday’s race, with Fearnley averaging 26.5 km/hr between the five and 10 kilometre check points. At that stage Romanchuk, Hug and Weir were 84 seconds ahead of the Australian star.
Though he tried hard, Fearnley was unable to reel in that trio.
“It's an amazing experience to be able to win two major marathons in a row,” Romanchuk, who added to his Chicago Marathon win from October, said.
