Sunday the 13th April David Weir will return to the Virgin London Marathon looking to create history. 10 February 2014

A rejuvenated David Weir will return to the Virgin Money London Marathon on Sunday 13 April hoping to become the greatest wheelchair racer in the event’s history by winning his seventh title on the famous course, and Tatyana McFadden will defend her women’s wheelchair crown after the American’s year of dominance on road and track.

Weir lost out to Australian Kurt Fearnley last year but the six-time Paralympic champion claims to have got his “hunger back” after taking a partial break from racing in 2013 to recharge the batteries following his London 2012 triumphs.

Weir equaled Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson’s record of six London Marathon victories in 2012, and was hoping to add a seventh in 2013 to become the event’s most successful male or female wheelchair racer. But the Briton had to settle for fifth last year after he was beaten in a bunch sprint.

“I always have an ‘off year’ after the Paralympics and last year was no different,” said Weir. “I needed to take the pressure off after the intensity of 2012, and I think I made the right choice to have an easier year. I’m not getting any younger.”

But the 34-year-old is confident he will have the measure of his opponents again in 2014. He’s resumed his old routine this year, spending January training hard in Australia and in March he will sharpen up for the marathon with another warm weather spell in Portugal.

“I’ve got that hunger back now, and I’ve been training really hard again because I still have the desire to overtake Tanni’s record,” he said. “I promised last year I wouldn’t stop until I’ve done it, and now I’m fired up to win again.”

Weir skipped the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France, last summer where Marcel Hug won five gold medals. With Fearnley absent this year due to the birth of his second child, Hug is likely to be Weir’s main rival. The Swiss racer has been second three times in recent years, and will be full of confidence after winning the World Championships marathon in July and the New York Marathon title in November.

“It was a fantastic achievement by Marcel at the World Championships,” commented Weir. “He looked pretty good there, and he’s looked good ever since.”

Hug won’t be the only man Weir needs to watch, however, as the field announced today is packed with champions, athletes such as official world record holder Heinz Frei, another Swiss racer, who won three London Marathon titles in the 1990s and triumphed at the Berlin Marathon last September.

There will also be stiff competition from 2010 London champion Josh Cassidy and nine-time Boston Marathon winner Ernst van Dyk. Cassidy recorded the fastest time ever on the downhill Boston course two years ago, but the Canadian will feel he has something to prove here after his unfortunate collision with Olympic marathon champion Tiki Gelana last year.

Van Dyk also has a point to make in London. Despite his dominance in Boston, the South African has never won the London Marathon, finishing second in 2000 and third in 2009 and 2013. He has represented South Africa at every Paralympics since the Barcelona Games in 1992 and shows no sign of slowing down. He won the Chicago Marathon last October ahead of Fearnley and was only narrowly beaten by Hug in New York.