Chaz Davis seeks second Boston Marathon win as para-athlete
When Chaz Davis steps foot at the start of the 126th Boston Marathon in Hopkinton on Monday, he’ll be competing as the returning winner of the vision impairment para-athlete category.
The Grafton native, wearing bib number 201, won the title last October, the first Boston Marathon to be held outside of the traditional April Patriots’ Day date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Davis, running tethered to a running partner throughout the race, finished with a time of 2:46:52.
Boston is the first marathon to offer prize rewards for para athletes, who compete in three divisions: vision impairment, lower-limb impairment and upper-limb impairment.
In 2016, Davis won a spot on Team USA’s track and field team for the Rio Paralympics. He finished 8th in the 5000m and tenth in the 1500m in the 2016 Rio games. In 2018, Davis ran the 122nd Boston Marathon where he finished fifth among 15 notable 2018 Boston Marathon finishers with a time of 2:56:22, running as a member of Team With A Vision, the team representing the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Davis isn’t the only runner with Grafton ties competing Monday. The Boston Athletic Association lists the following Graftonites in the field:
- Amelia Green, 30, bib 8471;
- Mike Green, 34, bib 28470;
- Viviana Marcotte, 39, bib 26205;
- Chris Mariano, 52, bib 24772;
- Octavio Melo, 44, bib 24785;
- Lori Muhr, 56, bib 18767;
- Matthew Shields, 42, bib 9127.
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