The de Rozari-Show Bound for New York

When it comes to major cities, they don’t come much bigger than New York – and the same rings true for Madison de Rozario when it comes to current Paralympic stars, with the dual Paralympic champion in Tokyo set to make her return to competition at Sunday’s New York Marathon.

Leading into the Paralympic Games, de Rozario had just one item missing from her illustrious resume spanning well over a decade – a Paralympic gold medal. But the world champion soon became the Paralympic champion when clinching gold in the 800m T53 event, before gritting her teeth to outlast her rivals in the Marathon T54.

It’s a performance that leaves de Rozario excited for her prospects in New York, where she will take on the Tokyo marathon podium of Manuela Schaer and Nikita den Boer, along with twenty-time Paralympic medallist Tatyana McFadden.

“Winning Tokyo is definitely a confidence boost for New York. The way that last hill was in Tokyo, I've never been able to do that well and 12 months ago, there's no way I would have won that. It shows that the preparation we have done in the past two years has been right,” she said.

“Manuela is the course record holder, so this race plays to her strengths, and I didn't beat her by a lot in Tokyo. I'm definitely not going in with the certainty of winning, but I'd love to get top 3. That would be my best result for New York Marathon. I'm really looking forward to it.”

Conceding that her preparation has been less than ideal after an easing in border restrictions and hotel quarantine requirements saw de Rozario acquire a late entry, the 27-year-old is confident that she has enough work in the bank to register a solid showing.

“It all just happened really fast. I hadn't told our physiologist (Ned Brophy-Williams) that we were enquiring, so when I got the ‘yes’ I had to tell him that I had two weeks to get marathon ready,” she laughed.

“I have done two straight years of marathon prep, so I've carried that fitness over. It's not as sharp, and it's not my best lead in but to get out and do the marathon before next year - a year which is going to be massive, I feel like it's important to refamiliarise myself.”

2022 will see de Rozario look to continue her golden run at both the Commonwealth Games and World Para Athletics Championships as a reigning champion at both events, with marathon experience crucial to her preparation in order to strengthen her stranglehold on the class both on the track and the roads.

With Paralympic legend Louise Sauvage at the helm, the accomplished duo have focussed heavily on strength work and hills during training – a component that de Rozario expects to be of great benefit come Sunday on the undulating New York course.

“We realised that strength and hill work was a real gap. I'm not great at the downhills but if you're not good at downhills, you can't be bad at uphills. Every marathon has a hill, and Tokyo was always going to be one of those races where I needed to nail position, power and strength - so I've done two years of preparation for that and that's going to lend itself well to this course,” she said.

Aware of the risks of rushing a marathon build, de Rozario says her limited training has consisted of longer sessions and longer repetitions, with multiple 30km pushes bolstering her optimism – “if you can do 30km, you can usually do 42km.”

de Rozario left Australia for New York on Thursday and is set to compete on Sunday at 11:00pm AEDT.  

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 4/11/2021