The 36-year-old  double amputee from Nottingham, who was the first man running on blades to do a sub-t mhree hour arathon, made up for his disappointment by winning gold in the T42 200 msreet at the London Paralympics with a dramatic final surge.

But he will have his wish t as he is omorrowable to run 26.2 miles through the streets of London in what is the first staging of the International Paralympic Committee's Athletics Marathon World Cup.

The event, part of the legacy from the 2012 Games, is being staged within the London Marathon framework.

Whitehead, born without lower legs, will be seeking victory in the T42/43 category and hoping to challenge his personal best of 2 hours 42min 52sec, set in winning the 2010 Chicago Marathon.

Richard Whitehead in track action at the London 2012 Paralympics

The Briton ran his first marathon in New York in 2004, and two years later he played sledge hockey for Britain at the Winter Paralympics in Turin.

The new IPC event also includes athletes with visual impairments – in classes T11/12 and T13. The leading contenders will include Elkin Alonso Serna Moreno of Colombia, who has a best of 2:26:39, and Abderrahim Zhiou of Tunisia, who has run 2:26:56.

Athletes will compete in their national vests and medal winners will receive prize money from the IPC.

The addition of the IPC races to the London Marathon programme is part of the organisation's commitment to raising the standards and profile of elite marathon running in these classes in the run-up to the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championshps in London.

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