Simon Lawson reckons winning the wheelchair event at the Manchester Marathon will act as perfect preparation for the Boston Marathon.

Cumbrian marathon man Lawson headed to the United States on Friday after he finished on top of the pile in a time of 1:31:52 in Manchester.

While 36-year-old Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Lawson concedes he wasn’t up against the strongest of fields at the competition, he nevertheless was thrilled to get the win which he will hope to build on in Boston tomorrow.

He said: “There were none of the top internationals there, but there was a decent British field.

“It was a good warm-up before Boston and the London Marathon [on April 28], and it was good to get out and get a win.”

The Maryport man, who works at Carlisle’s Jack Horseman Motorcycles, added: “It was a good day, actually.

“The weather was pretty good, there was only a slight breeze, and it was nice for it to be dry for once. It was a fairly decent course.

“In terms of the road surface, the parts that went out on to the main roads were good.

“But part of it went through roads by housing estates and it was quite twisty and quite rough in some places, which kind of slowed it down a bit. Overall, it was alright.”

Elsewhere in Manchester on Sunday, Aaron Richmond won the men’s race and Jenny Spink was the winner in the women’s category.

This month’s London Marathon will also act as the 2019 World Para Athletics Marathon Championships, despite the actual IAAF World Championships not taking place until September 28 to October 6 in Doha, Qatar.

And Lawson is also looking for some positives results with one eye on the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games next year.

He said: “Our World Championship Marathon is brought forward to London, that’s the biggest event of the year at the end of this month.

“It’s a big year. It’s the Olympics and Paralympics next year, so we need to put in a big year this year, more than next year, so that we can qualify.

“Results from this season’s races will be taken [as Olympic qualifiers], so it’s a really important year.”