Catherine Debrunner keeps winning streak with Berlin Marathon title

Paris 2024 Paralympic marathon champion goes back-to-back defending her title in the German capital, while Marcel Hug takes his ninth victory at the Berlin Marathon in the men's wheelchair race 30 Sep 2024

After taking five Paralympic gold medals at Paris 2024, Catherine Debrunner returned to competition to defend her Berlin Marathon title

ⒸSCC EVENTS/ Jean-Marc Wiesner

By Abbott World Marathon Majors and World Para Athletics

Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug delivered on the mid-week predictions that they would both end the 50th Berlin Marathon as they had stared it, as champions of this magnificent race.

The Paris 2024 Paralympic marathon champions delivered two dominant performances to reaffirm Switzerland’s position as the powerhouse of wheelchair marathon racing.

Hug now has four wins from five scoring races in Series XVI of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, while Debrunner has leapfrogged her fellow Swiss Manuela Schaer at the top of the leaderboard after adding Berlin to her London victory in April.

In the men’s race, Great Britain’s David Weir was able to stay in touch with his long-time adversary until the 20km mark before the eight-time winner of this race began to open an advantage.

‍By 25km, his lead was 44 seconds, and title number nine was coming into view for the 38-year-old. At the finish, Hug was one minute and 47 seconds in front of Weir, winning in 1:27:18, with the Netherlands’ Geert Schipper taking third place in 1:30:33.

The most successful Para athletics athlete at this year's Paralympics with five gold medals, Debrunner was only able to shake off the attentions of USA’s Susannah Scaroni after 30km that had seen the pair locked together. The reigning champion then unleashed an attack that eventually handed her victory by two minutes and 38 seconds. Schaer finished in third place in the women’s wheelchair marathon.

Both Swiss wheelchair racers were also the fastest through the Flying 400 segment of the course, securing them an additional eight points to the 25 they receive for winning.

With two races left in the series this year, their rivals face a fight to wrench the AbbottWMM silverware from Swiss hands.

1 - Catherine Debrunner (SUI) - 01:35:23
2 - Susannah Scaroni (USA) - 01:38:01
3 - Manuela Schaer (SUI) - 01:41:14
4 - Patricia Eachus (SUI) - 01:44:25
5 - Aline dos Santos Rocha (BRA) - 01:44:26
6 - Michelle Wheeler (USA) - 01:53:32
7 - Christie Dawes (AUS) - 01:55:26
8 - Lisa Schultis (SUI) - 01:57:54
9 - Joanna Robertson (GBR) - 02:19:37
10 - Catriona Johnston (GBR) - 03:19:53

1 - Marcel Hug (SUI) - 01:27:18
2 - David Weir (GBR) - 01:29:05
3 - Geert Schipper (NED) - 01:30:33
4 - Florian Brungraber (AUT) - 01:32:01
5 - Lito King Anker (NED) - 01:33:53
6 - Rafael Botello Jimenez (ESP) - 01:33:54
7 - Sho Watanabe (JPN) - 01:33:55
8 - Ludwig Malter (AUT) - 01:33:55
9 - Joshua Cassidy (CAN) - 01:33:55
10 - Johnboy Smith (GBR) - 01:33:57