Cassidy, the 2010 London Marathon champion, smashed into Gelana at about the 15-kilometre mark in yesterday's race as the leading wheelchair racers looked to pass the elite women runners.

The collision scuppered both athletes' chances of victory as Gelana limped to a 16th place finish and Cassidy ended in 20th place.

Weir, who finished fifth in the race behind eventual victor Kurt Fearnley of Australia, admitted he had sympathy for his training partner Cassidy and the six-time Paralympic champion claimed the wheelchair racers must go out before the elite female runners in the future to avoid a repeat of the incident.

"We have been asking organisers for years if we can go out before the women," Weir told insidethegames.

"I don't know why we can't.

"I think it might have something to do with the timings for television and things but it just doesn't make sense.

"We go off first in all the other big marathons like in New York, Chicago and Berlin so I don't know why we can't just do that in London.

"The thing is, we really just don't want this sort of thing to happen.

"We are going at really high speeds and we could end up breaking one of the runner's legs or ending their careers.

"We really don't want that to happen as we could end a great career or end up getting sued for a complete accident.

"They are elite runners, we are elite racers, and neither of us should be put in this position."

Weir, who won four gold medals at the London 2012 Paralympics in the 800, 1500 and 5,000 metres as well as the marathon, missed the chance to claim a record seventh title as he finished fifth.

He is currently tied on six victories with Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson but said he will be back next year in search of the seventh title.

"It has been a more relaxed year after London 2012 last year and I haven't really been training that much," he said.

"I don't want to make excuses though because I was beaten by better racers on the day and hopefully I can return next year and win and get that record on my own ahead of Tanni."



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