Tokyo Paralympics Marathon to Be Held on Same Course as Olympics

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee announced on Apr. 8 that the marathon scheduled for the final day of the Tokyo Paralympics on Sept. 6, 2020, will be held on the same course to be used for the Olympics. The 42.195 km course will start and finish at the New National Stadium, the first time since the 2008 Beijing Olympics that the same course has been used for both the Olympics and Paralympics. Starting at 7:00 a.m., the race will feature five different classes of wheelchair and visually-challenged athletes.

Committee Sports Director Koji Murofushi commented, "For a Paralympic marathon this will be a uniquely wide-ranging, dynamic course." 2018 Paris Marathon winner Hiroki Nishida (Baccarat Pacific), the first-ever Japanese winner of Paris' wheelchair division, expected the final uphill section of the course, which climbs 30 m in the last 3 km, to be crucial, saying, "Tactics will play a role until just before the hill, and there are different ways the race could unfold."

source article:
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/sports/news/2019/04/09/kiji/20190409s00057000125000c.html
translated by Brett Larner