Weir, who claimed three golds on the track at these Championships, and fellow Briton Shelly Woods, who was down to compete in the women's marathon T54 event, both pulled out of the race after an IPC Technical Delegate informed all National Paralympic Committees late last night that there were no road closures as had been previously promised.

The move caused absolute chaos amongst the teams and saw Canada, who took their place on the start line; pulled out from the event at the very last minute.

Peter Eriksson, UK Athletics Head Paralympic Coach, claimed that the athletes had been left with no choice to withdraw.

"According to IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) rules, under which this event is governed, there has to be complete road closures," he said.

"Our athletes can be peaking at speeds of 40-50 kilometres per hour and, due to their low racing positions, visibility is poor for passing traffic.

"Having discussed this at length last night, in addition to the implications of racing, both Shelly and Dave felt it was too dangerous and not acceptable to compete.

"After a hugely successful World Championships overall for the team, we fully support their decision, although obviously the athletes and UK Athletics as a whole are disappointed that they can't show what great form they're in.

"Safety, however, is paramount, and with less than 600 days to go the London 2012 Paralympic Games this presents a danger we are not prepared to take."

It meant that the marathon, billed as the race of the Championships, failed to live up to expectations as Australia's Kurt Fearnley (pictured) raced to a hollow victory in one hour 31min 09sec.

"It was a good roll for me on a tough day and on a tough course but I'm gutted that guys like Dave Weir and Canada's Josh Cassidy [the 2010 London Marathon winner] had to pull out," Fearnley told insideworldparasport.

"Everyone says we are big rivals but we are all really good mates and to look around on the start line and see their spots empty made it really hard for me to line up.

"It's everyone's own decision but it sucks that we had to make it, particularly at a World Championships.

"You don't expect this at a World Championships, to be racing on the road with cars shooting past.

"You don't even expect it in the lowest level events.

"For guys like Dave and Josh to be in a position where they have to make that choice is very, very average from the guys who put the course together."

Legendary Swiss wheelchair racer Heinz Frei claimed silver in 1:31.09 at the age of 53 while Japan's Masazumi took bronze in 1:31.10.

In the women's T54 event, the only women's marathon of the day, Wakako Tsuchida of Japan scrapped to gold ahead in a photo finish ahead of Sandra Graf of Switzerland and bronze medallist Amanda McGrory with all three crossing the line with a time of 1:48.24.

In the men's marathon T46 race, Mexico's Mario Santillan Hernandez (pictured) won gold in 2:30.59 to finish over a minute ahead of Brazilian pair Tito Sena and Ozivam in second and third respectively while in the men's marathon T11, Cristian Valenzuela of Chile took first place in a Championship record of 2:41.04, ahead of Italy's Andrea Cionna of Italy and Japan's Shinya Wada.

In the final marathon event and final race of the World Championships, Alberto Suarez Laso of Spain took gold in the T12 race in a world record of 2:28.10 to finish well ahead of Elkin Alonso Serna Moreno of Colombia in silver and Masahiro Okamura of Japan in bronze.

Despite the marathon debacle, Christchurch has been a hugely successful World Championships for the British team in which they came away with 38 medals, 12 of which were gold, to finish joint third on the overall medal table alongside Brazil.

China finished top of the medal table with 58 medals, 21 golds, while Russia finished in second place with 35 medals, 18 of which were gold.

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