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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 6, 2011Amanda McGroryMasazumi SoejimaNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK RICHARD FINN: We'd like to welcome our first of our ING New York City Marathon 2011 champions from the wheelchair division, Amanda McGrory. Course record of 1:50:24, shatters the record from 2007 of 1:52:38, set by Edith Hunkeler. Congratulations. AMANDA McGRORY: Thanks. RICHARD FINN: I guess as we say here in the United States, third time is the charm. Third time for Masazumi Soejima for his time, his third time here in New York, and he finally comes through as a winner, the first Japanese winner of the men's wheelchair division. He is also the 2011 Boston Marathon champion. We'll go ladies first. Amanda, looked like a brilliant day out there, your performance, weather wise, and crowd wise. AMANDA McGRORY: It was fantastic. I couldn't ask for a better day weather-wise. This is the most pleasant New York City Marathon I've ever won. The crowd was phenomenal as always, and I just felt great start to finish. I pulled away around the half marathon mark, was feeling strong, and took it all the way home. RICHARD FINN: Thank you. I was amiss to say that Amanda was also our 2006 champion. So a return champion. Masazumi, your comments, please? MASAZUMI SOEJIMA: Thank you so much. I got so much relief, and now I just ate something so I got full and I'm a little bit getting sleepy. RICHARD FINN: How did the race go? When did you pull away or make your move; was it late in the race, early in the race? MASAZUMI SOEJIMA: This race, especially in the beginning, is the hardest part, Kurt is always like running, so following him is the difficult part. Today I just wanted to be able to catch Kurt, so I just ran and ran and ran, and I did the best I could today. At the point of 25 kilometers, I just became the first one, so I sort of ran away from everybody else. RICHARD FINN: Bob, $15,000 for both of the champions and also it looks like a $5,000 bonus for a course record for Amanda, so $20,000. And Masazumi, $16,000 with one-time bonus; is that correct? Amanda, quite a day. Any other comments about the race and your thoughts today? AMANDA McGRORY: Just want to thank the Roadrunners for putting on an awesome event as always. I'm honored to be invited back here year after year. On the elite wheelchair racing circuit, New York is the toughest course with the toughest competition, so I feel pretty good about today, and I'm sure Masazumi does as well. Q. Soejima, can you talk a little about your inspiration in this year's race, particularly regarding the Tsunami? MASAZUMI SOEJIMA: As you know, it's been a very difficult time for Japan, and I've been thinking as an athlete, well, what I can do to cheer up Japan. As a charity event in Oita I invited child athletes to Oita, but I couldn't win that time. But this time I could win, and I made a promise with the children athletes in Oita that I was going to win the New York City Marathon, and I'm very happy that I kept that promise. RICHARD FINN: We congratulate both of you. You're the first champions of what we hope is going to be a championship day here. We congratulate both of you. Well done. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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