Field Preview | Tokyo Paralympics

A 13-strong contingent of field athletes will aim to add to the Australian track and field medal tally at the Paralympic Games when competition commences this Friday, 27^th August.

Nine Australian field athletes won medals in Rio. Can this number be bettered in Tokyo?

Long jump

Australia will be represented by four athletes across four different classes in the long jump, with all of them showing promise for positions on the medal dais at Japan National Stadium.

German-born Vanessa Low (Iryna Dvoskina) will lead the charge for the quartet as the reigning Paralympic gold medallist, world champion and world record holder in the T61-63 event. Vanessa is a two-time Paralympian, having previously competed for Germany but will wear the green and gold at the pinnacle event for the first time. In Rio, she won gold with a 4.93m and since then has improved out of sight, adding 40cm for a new personal best of 5.32m – a distance she set as a benchmark not long after setting a 5.09m world record in February this year.

Sarah Walsh (Matt Beckenham) will go to her second Paralympic Games as the Oceania record holder for the T64 class, with a lifetime best of 5.49m. Since making her debut in Rio where she placed sixth, she has climbed up the world ranks and in 2019, won bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai with a leap of 5.20m. Her best today would have won her the bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, making her a strong contender for a minor medal, but if the current world rankings are anything to go by, she will need to jump a significant personal best to come home with a medal around her neck.

Nicholas Hum (John Boas) will return for his second Games in the T20 class for athletes with an intellectual impairment, while Ari Gesini (Sebastian Kuzminski) will compete in the ultra-competitive T38 class for his Paralympic debut. Hum placed fifth at the Rio Games, and missed out on selection for the 2019 World Championships, but has found his way back on team. Gesini made his international debut at the 2019 World Championships where he set three new personal bests on his way to fourth place in his pet event. His best jump of 6.16m saw him set his first qualifier for the Tokyo Games, a leap which remains his personal best. Gesini will be dedicating his Paralympic berth to his father, who tragically passed away earlier this year.

Throws

Two Australians collected medals in the throws events at the Rio 2016 Paralympics, and we are only days away from finding out if this number will be bettered.

Since being classified as an F38 athlete after a cerebral palsy diagnosis in 2017, Corey Anderson (Des Davis) has announced himself as one of the world’s best javelin throwers. At the 2019 Australian Athletics Championships, Anderson set a new world record and then bettered that mark at the World Championships in Dubai later that year, to win gold upon his international debut.

Corey’s world record of 58.18m will put a target on his back, and one of the athletes chasing him will be fellow Australian and 2017 world champion Jayden Sawyer (Mike Barber) who will be out for a podium finish after placing fifth at the 2019 World Championships. Sawyer’s 52.96m which won him gold at the 2017 World Championships remains his personal bests, but the Canberra-local has made significant in-roads in the latter half of the season showing significant progression.

F44 athlete Michal Burian (Nick Baltas) has been “obsessed” with javelin since he saw world record holder and Olympic champion Jan Zelenzy training at his local athletics club in his native Czech Republic, and has been inspired to follow his footsteps since. Today he is not only the Australian record holder in the F44 class, he is the current world leader with a best of 63.65m – more than 2 metres ahead of reigning Paralympic champion Sandeep Sandeep. Michal will compete in the combined javelin F64 event as the sole Australian representative.

The discus events will be led by Rio Paralympian Guy Henly (Kim Cousins) who will be looking to step up from his fourth place finish at his debut Games to nab a medal in the F37 event. In the two major championships since Rio, Henly claimed silver at the 2017 World Championships in London, and a bronze at the 2019 edition in Dubai. His bronze medal in 2019 was his fourth medal at his fourth world championships in a row and if his season’s best of 52.77m is anything to go by, a medal at the Paralympic Games is entirely possible.

Sarah Edmiston (Paul Edmiston) and Samantha Schmidt (Ralph Newton) round out our discus representatives; both looking to impress at their first Paralympic Games. Edmiston made her international debut in 2017 as a 41-year-old but claimed bronze in a new national record of 33.80 on her third attempt. She upgraded her bronze to a silver closing the gap on Paralympic champion Juan Yao (38.78) with another Australian record of 36.43m. She has since bettered her record, with a personal best of 37.66m highlighting that anything could happen upon her Paralympic debut.

A first-time international representative, Schmidt goes to her first Paralympics as the Oceania record holder in the F38 class after she lifted her personal best to 33.66m at the Sydney Track Classic in March to sail under the Games qualifying mark. Schmidt is currently ranked 4^th in the world and is one to watch not only in Tokyo but as we look ahead to the World Para Athletics Championships in 2022.

Todd Hodgetts (Scott Martin) has a history of success at the Paralympic Games, winning gold upon his debut in London, which he then followed up with a bronze medal in Rio. While he fell off the podium at the 2019 World Championships, with a final placing of ninth, Hodgetts threw a best of 15.92m during the season to cement himself on the team.

Maria Strong (John Eden) and Rosemary Little (Karyne Di Marco and Breanne Clement) make up our two seated shot put athletes in Tokyo. Little has previously gone to two Games as a wheelchair racer, but has turned her attention to field events in recent days and has thrown a personal best and season’s best of 6.12m in the F32 class. 50-year-old Strong, competes in the F33 class, and although relatively new to international competition, has made a quick progression since trying the sport for the first time just four years ago. Strong placed fifth in a hot field with a throw of 6.37m at the 2019 World Championships and is an outside medal chance at her first Paralympic Games.

By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 25/8/2021