Australian wheelchair athlete Kurt Fearnley stormed to victory in the Tokyo marathon on Sunday, marking a great start to a year he hopes will culminate in a third Paralympic marathon gold medal.
Fearnley crossed the finish line in Tokyo in one hour 26 minutes and one second after bursting clear of a lead pack of four racers in the final 100 metres.
Ernst van Dyk of South Africa was second.
"It was a brutal race and a tight finish, so to hit the tape first in a fast time is a great result," Fearnley said.
"It's always nice to get an early win on the board.
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"To be one from one in the marathons this year is a good confidence builder leading up to the Paralympics."
Fearnley will contest up to six marathons in 2016, with Boston, London and the Rio Paralympics all on the agenda.
"Every race and every training session points to Rio this year. It'll probably be my last Paralympics so I want to make sure I don't leave anything to chance," he said.
"Today is a good start but there's a lot of kilometres to go before Rio."
