The qualification time for the men's marathon T54 race at London 2012 published by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has been set at 1 hour 40min for men which Weir easily made at the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday (April 17) along with Switzerland's runner-up Heinz Frei, his compatriot Marcel Hug and Canada's Josh Cassidy.

They will be joined in the race by Japan's Masazumi Soejima, who won the Boston Marathon yesterday, Australian superstar Kurt Fearnley who finished second in Boston, and marathon world record holder Ernst van Dyk of South African, third in the race in the United States.

The women's marathon T54 qualifying time has been set at 2:00 meaning that American pair Amanda McGrory and Tatyana McFadden and Britain's Shelly Woods claimed the time at the London Marathon as did the women's Boston Marathon champion Wakako Tsuchida of Japan with a total of six athletes per National Paralympic Committee (NPC) eligible to be entered into each marathon event.

In total there are 170 different medal events in athletics broken down to 103 men's and 67 women's events with another highlight set to be the men's 100 metre T44 race.

The A-standard of 12.20sec for the event is highly unlikely to prevent a mouth-watering showdown between American world champion Jerome Singleton and South African world record holder and defending Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius.

Elsewhere, athletes wanting to compete in the Men's 100m T13 must reach an A-standard of 11.50.

The world record currently stands at 10.62 and is held by Irish sprinter Jason Smyth.


Women sprinters in the T11 visually impaired class have been set an A-standard of 13.60 to qualify for the 100m with Brazil's Terezinha Guilhermina (pictured above left) holding the world record of 12.13.

In the field, F44 discus throwers must reach 40 metres to qualify with Britain's Dan Greaves holding the world record of 58.98m which he claimed earlier this year.

Meanwhile women's long jumpers in the F42 category must leap 3.40m to be in with a chance of competing in London in an event where  Australia's Kelly Cartwright holds the current world's best with a jump of 4.19m.

The qualifying period for London 2012 officially began on December 1, 2010 and will run until August 5, 2012 with the 2012 Paralympic Games due to take place from August 29 to September 9, 2012.

NPC's can enter a maximum of three eligible athletes per single medal event but for events where classes are combined, five athletes from one country can be entered.

To read the full list of qualifying standards click here. 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
April 2011: Pistorius and Singleton set to resume rivalry as IPC publish athletics programme for 2012