Schär & Romanchuk to defend Chicago crowns

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon today welcomed back its defending wheelchair champions for the 2019 race.

Manuela Schär and Daniel Romanchuk swept to victory in 2018 and both are on course to win Series XII of the Abbott World Marathon Majors.

Schär has gone through the card in this series, winning all six races to date and setting a new world record of 1:36:53 in Berlin on the opening day.

She returns to the German capital in September to round out Series XII, and the Windy City will mark the start of Series XIII just two weeks later.

Romanchuk's 2018 victory in Chicago was his first as a Majors racer and paved the way for a dominant year from the 20-year-old. He followed it with a win at the TCS New York City Marathon and plundered two more victories in Boston and London to establish an unassailable lead at the top of the men's leaderboard.

Schär will be up against the familiar trio of University of Illinois athletes; Tatyana McFadden, Amanda McGrory and Susannah Scaroni as they attempt to break the two-year stranglehold the 34-year-old Swiss star has had on the women's series.

Romanchuk will have experienced opposition to contend with in the shape of South Africa's Ernst van Dyk, Canadian Josh Cassidy and Britain's David Weir as well as his compatriots Josh George and Aaron Pike.

2019 Women's field
Name
Manuela Schär
Susannah Scaroni
Tatyana McFadden
Amanda McGrory
Sandra Graf
Jenna Fesemyer
Madison de Rozario
Arielle Rausin
Eliza Ault-Connell
Michelle Wheeler
Yen Hoang
Sammy Rhodes

Country
SUI
USA
USA
USA
SUI
USA
AUS
USA
AUS
USA
USA
USA

Personal best
1:28:17
1:30:42
1:31:30
1:33:13
1:35:59
1:37:02
1:39:22
1:40:51
1:41:46
1:57:33
2:01:06
Debut

2019 Men's field
Name
Ernst Van Dyk
Josh Cassidy
Hiroki Nishida
Aaron Pike
Daniel Romanchuk
Josh George
Rafael Botello
Jorge Madera
Patrick Monahan
Ryota Yoshida
James Senbeta
Simon Lawson
Francisco Sanclemente
Brian Siemann
Juan Ramon Valladares
David Weir
Fidel Aguilar
Alfonso Zaragoza
Johnboy Smith
Gyu Dae Kim
Jose Pulido
Jose Jimenez Hernandez
Hermin Garic
Brett Gravatt
Christian Clemmons
Joey Gibbs
Tiaan Bosch
Raymond Martin
Brendan Quinn
Rob Smith

Country
RSA
CAN
JPN
USA
USA
USA
ESP
ESP
IRL
JPN
USA
GBR
COL
USA
VEN
GBR
MEX
MEX
GBR
KOR
MEX
CRC
USA
USA
USA
USA
RSA
USA
USA
GBR

Personal best
1:18:04
1:18:25
1:20:28
1:20:59
1:21:36
1:21:47
1:22:09
1:22:10
1:22:23
1:23:18
1:24:27
1:25:06
1:26:27
1:26:46
1:28:04
1:28:57
1:29:13
1:29:37
1:29:44
1:30:08
1:30:43
1:31:36
1:32:27
1:35:05
1:38:08
1:39:06
1:39:41
1:51:26
1:51:51
1:55:51