Michael Roeger puts Tokyo Paralympic heartbreak behind him

Roeger broke his own world record in the T46 men's 5000 metres in Adelaide on Saturday night in a blistering 13 minutes 52.05 seconds - the first time he's broken the 14-minute mark.

It was the perfect pick-me-up after the 33-year-old's Tokyo heartbreak - where he went into the T46 marathon as the favourite, only for his preparation to be ruined by stress fractures in his leg.

The Canberran will now set his sights on the 5000m national title in Sydney and then a world record at the prestigious Boston Marathon on April 14.

Then he'll start turning his focus towards the Paris Paralympics in 2024, where he's facing the prospect of a massive drop in distance.

The IPC have cut the marathon from the program, meaning unless they reverse their decision he'll have to target the 1500m instead.

It's an event he's had success in before and one he's confident he can do well in again, having held the world record since 2017.

Roeger was all out of fight when the IPC canned the marathon - just eight weeks after his Tokyo heartbreak.

"Definitely. The ambulant marathon should be in there. They've got the vision impaired, why not have the amputee one as well?" he said.

"Of course I think it should be in there ... but whatever event I run I'll make sure I'm ready for that.

"The dream and the fight is to win Paralympic gold and that's still there.

"This year hasn't changed - I'll do a few marathons and then I'm going to have to go back to the track for the 1500m.

"My coach Philo [Saunders] feels I can run well over 1500m so I'm going to knuckle down in 2023 and 2024 and hopefully that dream of winning a Paralympic gold is still there.

"I'm the world-record holder in that ... if I can get back into that sort of shape, I'm going to be hard to beat."

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Roeger struggled in the weeks after last year's Paralympics, having gone in as the world champion, world-record holder and gold-medal favourite only for stress fractures in his fibula to hamper his preparation.

He finished sixth and then took 11 weeks of running to physically and mentally refresh.

But his world record at the Adelaide Invitational was the perfect boost for the South Australian product and has helped him reset his expectations of the year ahead.

"Very unexpected, but that goes to show when you don't expect it and you just go into a race with lower expectations and just enjoy it more things can happen," Roeger said.

"Before last night going to Boston was just going to be go and enjoy it.

"I ran two hours 18 minutes last year, that was the world record - I didn't think I could get near that shape, but after last night that's given me a lot of confidence and maybe I can ... break another world record.

"After the next four weeks of training then I'll get a bit of a gauge."

That includes the upcoming track nationals in Sydney at the end of March.

Roeger has a 10,000m road race in Tasmania and then he'll have the chance to break his own 5000m record again.

"After the disappointment of Tokyo it took me a long time mentally to get over that ... but five months later to come back to South Australia, where I grew up, and to break the 5000m record and to run sub-14 minutes for the first time was very special," he said.

"Over the moon. I gave myself to the New Year to put Tokyo behind me and it's been a good six weeks leading into this race and a great stepping stone for the season.

"I'm enjoying running again and I'm just looking forward to the season ahead and hopefully run well in Sydney in six weeks' time at the national 5000m and if I can get better than what I ran [Saturday] night that'll be great. Cracking start to the season."