MAB Team With A Vision Sweeps 2010 Boston Marathon Visually Impaired Division
Posted Wednesday, 21 April, 2010
Brookline -- April 20, 2010 – The Team With A Vision (TWAV) dominated the elite field of this year’s visually impaired division of the Boston Marathon, winning the top three places in the men’s VI division and second in the women’s category. The team runs for MAB Community Services, the former Mass. Association for the Blind.
Team With a Vision member Adrian Broca won first place as a visually impaired male, finishing in 2:57:59 with his sighted guide Allison McCabe. Fellow team members Matt Rodjom took second place (3:06:20) and Kurt Fiene placed third (3:18:21). TWAV runner Tina Ament won second place of the visually impaired female division in 4:27:35, with her guide Mick Armbuster.
The 2010 Marathon was a showdown between TWAV team members Broca and Fiene to win the first place title for the men’s visually impaired division. In 2009 Fiene took first place, finishing in 2:43:44 to set the new Boston Marathon record for the title as an American athlete. Broca finished first in the category in 2007 while Fiene seized the title in 2008; Broca returned to Boston this year reclaim the gold.
Despite their visual impairments, the athletes’ race times rival those of sighted runners. Broca and Fiene potentially rank among the fastest 500 runners of the Boston Marathon, according to Runner’s World Magazine.
“Running marathons has allowed me to view my blindness as a positive thing,” Broca said. “We can be more disabled in life by having a negative attitude than by being physically impaired.”
TWAV includes both blind and sighted runners, providing a community for runners of all skill levels to compete in the race whether sighted or visually impaired. Broca ran with sighted guides accompanying him along the race course, while Fiene ran without a guide.
The 2010 Boston Marathon is the Team With A Vision’s seventeenth marathon, having raised over a million dollars in funds to support MAB Community Services’ programs and services since the team’s inception.
ABOUT MAB:
MAB Community Services is dedicated to working with individuals with disabilities to eliminate barriers and create opportunities. Founded in 1903 as the Massachusetts Association for the Blind, MAB Community Services is the oldest social service agency in the country dedicated to serving blind and visually impaired individuals.
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