BOSTON - Daniel Romanchuk has won the men's wheelchair race at the Boston Marathon with the fastest time ever by an American. Romanchuk crossed the finish line on Boylston Street on Monday in an official time of 1 hour, 21 minutes, 36 seconds. Manuela Schar, meanwhile, is on her way to a sweep of the World Marathon Major women's wheelchair races.Schar won Boston for the second time on Monday, finishing in 1 hour, 34 minutes, 19 seconds with no one else in sight. She is already the defending champion in Berlin, Chicago, New York and Tokyo. If she wins in London in two weeks, she will have swept the series.
Romanchuk is the youngest winner of the race at 20 years, eight months and 12 days. He is the first American winner since Jim Knaub in 1993. Romanchuk finished three minutes ahead of Japan's Masazumi Soejima, who was second in 1:24:30. Marcel Hug was third, coming in at 1:26:42. Romanchuk says: "I knew it was possible, it was just a matter of everything coming together."Romanchuk's victory breaks up the recent dominance of Hug and Ernst van Dyk, who between them have 14 Boston Marathon victories. Hug had won the previous four Boston races. Schar, a 34-year-old from Switzerland, was about six minutes slower than the record she set in her other Boston victory, two years ago.