2016 Rio Paralympics: Kurt Fearnley grabs wheelchair marathon silver behind Marcel Hug
AUSSIE star Kurt Fearnley won his fourth straight medal at a Paralympic wheelchair marathon in Rio. But it wasn’t the colour he wanted most.
FIVE metres. That’s it. Five bloody metres, out of 42,000 of them.
Aussie icon Kurt Fearnley has bowed out of Paralympic competition with a wheelchair marathon silver medal, finishing in the shadow of first-time champion Marcel Hug in a gripping career finale.
By the end, after 1hr 26min 16s of gruelling head-to-head racing in fierce Rio heat, Fearnley hit the finish line just one second short of a farewell gold medal.
The 35-year-old was part of a two-man breakaway with Swiss great Hug, controlling the eight-lap criterium at Rio’s Copacabana beachside strip virtually from the start.
But in his final Paralympic appearance, before his representative retirement at Gold Coast’s 2018 Commonwealth Games, the Aussie co-captain said with the finish line in sight the toll of the previous 42km was too much to match Hug’s final surge.
“Marathons are just brutal, you know,” said Fearnley, a two-time Paralympics marathon champion.
“You go out there and you control everything physically and you throw everything you’ve got at it. With 200m to go, everything I had kind of stopped.
“Marcel was a very deserving winner.”
Fearnley’s silver adds to his bronze in the 5000m last week, taking his final career Paralympics record to three gold, seven silver and three bronze.
The farewell medal for the man who seven years ago crawled the Kokoda Trail takes his unbroken streak of podium finishes in the Paralympic marathon to a staggering four.
Only his Games debut in Sydney failed to deliver a medal.
“I think I ran about 32nd in my Paralympic marathon back in Sydney – and I’m grateful for that start,” he said.
“That start is the thing that has given me the next 16 years to build on. I’m as proud of that day as I am today.”
Fearnley and Hug busted the 23-man marathon pack early on, pulling away from the chasing group and stretching their lead to as much as a kilometre.
Pre-race, it shaped as a showdown between the pair and another departing veteran, Great Britain’s David Weir.
But Weir’s campaign ended early with mechanical issues. He was one of five non-finishers.
Fearnley and Hug were level to the final 20m, before the Swiss blasted clear.
Fearnley, who celebrated with wife Sheridan and their three-year-old son Harry, said he had no regrets at calling time.
“He (Harry) won’t even remember that day, but it was a pretty special one for me,” he said.
“It’s been 20 odd years of doing something that I love. There’s been way too many amazing experiences.
“There have been some tough ones, but every single one of them have been worth going through. I’m proud of them, I’m proud of my ability to be able to bounce back from a lot of them.
“I’ve loved the people around me. I’ve loved getting to know them. I’ve loved to share it with every single one of them.”
Originally published as 2016 Rio Paralympics: Kurt Fearnley grabs wheelchair marathon silver behind Marcel Hug
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