Winner’s Tactics in Marathon Questioned by Other Competitors : Wheelchair Division Sparks Loud Protest

George Murray of St. Petersburg, Fla., won the wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon Monday in a race that sparked cries of protest from the next two finishers.

Murray’s time for the 26-mile 385-yard race was 1 hour 45 minutes and 34 seconds. Andre Viger of Quebec, the 1984 Boston wheelchair winner, finished second in 1:47.33, followed by Jim Knaub of Long Beach in 1:48.44.

Immediately after the race, Knaub and Viger disputed Murray’s victory, charging that he jumped the starting gun and violated the rules by following too close to the lead vehicle.

The second-and third-place finishers did not file a protest with the Boston Athletic Assn. Instead, they said they would press their challenge through the International Wheelchair Racing Club.

Both men said they preferred to pursue their challenge through the governing body of their own sport. But, Knaub noted, Murray is the president of the Wheelchair Racing Club.

Murray, 37, a victim of a hunting accident, said he turned in a clean race.

“They did not give enough clearance,” he said of the crew in the automobile that runs ahead of the field through the race. “I was trying to get down the road the fastest way I could. If there’s a vehicle in front of me I have no obligation to slow down. It’s a function of the race officials.”

Knaub claimed that Murray intentionally fell into line behind the lead vehicle so that his racing chair would be helped along by the drag in the car’s wake.

“It appears to me and Andre that he was right on the bumper of the lead vehicle,” Knaub said, admitting that he was nearly a quarter of a mile behind Murray.

Knaub, the wheelchair winner at Boston in 1982 and 1983, said he wants to review films of the start and to question the driver and passengers of the lead vehicle.

The three broad-shouldered, heavily muscled racers moved around the finishers’ area without speaking to each other.

Murray said he had no problems with the warmth and humidity on the course because of his training in Florida. His arms were bruised and his fingers blistered, but otherwise, Murray said, he felt “pretty good.”