Hell On Wheels Breaks Her Boston Hoodoo
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday April 22, 1997
A FTER racing wheel to wheel for almost two hours with her arch rival, Louise Sauvage was more angry than shocked when dominant US marathoner Jean Driscoll spectacularly crashed out of the Boston Marathon on Monday.
Australia's multiple Paralympic gold medallist wanted to beat Driscoll, the seven-time Boston wheelchair champion, to the line at full speed and strength.
The 23-year-old scored a well-earned tactical victory but was denied the pleasure of defeating Driscoll at the finish after leaving the dismayed American sprawled on the hilly Boston course 5km from the line.
While Sauvage, who will move to Sydney from Perth next month to train for the 2000 Paralympics, had been plotting to dethrone Driscoll in her bid to become the world's best female wheelchair marathoner, it was the American who proved the architect of her own demise.
Sauvage and Driscoll broke away from the pack early and raced side by side until disaster struck Driscoll on a hill. Desperate to shake off Sauvage, Driscoll took a corner too sharply, hit a tram line and crashed.
Race officials helped Driscoll back into her chair but she finished the race seven minutes behind Sauvage, who won in 1hr54min28s.
"I was very angry," Sauvage said from Boston. "I wanted to finish the race with Jean; I wanted to beat her to the finish line. That would have been great. She could have slowed down and gone wider at that turn but she took a chance and paid the price.
"The win is so important to me because I have been wanting it for so long. Marathons are a lot harder than track racing and a lot more can go wrong. They are more challenging and there are more tactics involved."
Sauvage said it was rare for experienced athletes to spill from their wheelchairs without a pile-up or crash being the catalyst. Sauvage has spent most of her life in a wheelchair after being born with a spinal condition that causes leg paralysis, and considers herself lucky never to have suffered the same fate as Driscoll in a major race.
She rated the Boston victory on a par with her haul of four Olympic golds in Atlanta because of her long quest to beat the tough, hilly Boston course and the dreaded Driscoll's hold on the event. Her four previous attempts in Boston had yielded two seconds, a third and a fourth.
According to Sauvage, Driscoll was the ultimate racer, a long distance champion who was renowned for her hill strength. Last month, Sauvage broke through to beat Driscoll for the first time in the Los Angeles Marathon. She proved it was no fluke on Monday by beating the toppled titan again.
"This is huge, right up there with winning Olympic gold because it is something I have been trying to do for a long time," she said. "I just wanted to beat Jean. She is the marathon woman. She knows the Boston course so well from racing it and she drives it before the race, too. It is so hard to break her. To stay with her shows I am becoming more competitive. It shows I am definitely stronger and I have a lot more confidence on the road."
The Boston victory confirmed Sauvage as one of the top five wheelchair racers in the world who could triumph over distance as well as the sprint events she had dominated since 1989.
In addition to winning three gold medals and one silver over distances ranging from 100m-800m at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics, Sauvage came sixth in the marathon and acquired a taste for road racing with all its danger and uncertainty.
The broad-shouldered Sauvage turned to middle and long distances for the challenge and for the money on offer on the international circuit. It was not long before she started dominating 10km-15km events and injecting fear into marathon fields.
Now that she had finally conquered Boston and Driscoll, Sauvage planned to move to Sydney to take advantage of better training facilities and opportunities in the lead-up to the 2000 Paralympics.
But she was adamant that she would confine her medal chase to the track events and avoid the marathon course which she described as a "shocker".
"No way will I be doing the 2000 marathon," she said. "The roads in Sydney are dreadful and there are so many hills on the course. It is terrible."
LOUISE SAUVAGE - CAREER HIGHLIGHTS 1992 Paralympic Games Distance Result Time 100m 1st 200m 1st 29.30 world record 400m 1st 800m 2nd 1994 IPC World Championships 800m 1st 1.51.82 world record 1996 Olympic demonstration race Distance Result Time 800m 1st 1.54.90 Paralympic Games Distance Result Time 400m 1st 54.96 800m 1st 1.52.80 1500m 1st 3.49.61 world record 5000m 1st 12.40.71 world record 1997 Won Los Angeles marathon Won Boston marathon
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald