Racers set to fly at Chemist Warehouse Australian Wheelchair Racing Championships

The nation’s fastest wheelchair racers will launch their Paralympic campaigns this weekend with a battle for national titles at the Chemist Warehouse Australian Wheelchair Championships, hosted at the Australian Institute of Sport as part of Wheelchair Sport NSW/ACT’s Summer Down Under Series.

National champions are set to be crowned for distances of 200m, 800m, 1500m and 5000m from Sunday through to Monday, while the 100m and 400m titles will be contested at the 2024 Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide from April 11-19.

With selection policies released for the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, France and World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan late last year, the race for Australian representation this year is only set to heat up in Canberra – with many athletes already posting qualifying performances.

Announced by Paralympics Australia as co-captain for the 2024 Paralympic Games, 20-time global medallist and six-time Paralympian Anegla Ballard (Jamie Green, T53) is booked in for a busy weekend with six events on her program, having already nailed Paralympic ‘B’ qualifiers over 400m and 800m.

Fellow Paralympic star Rheed McCracken (Louise Sauvage, T34) has proven to be a dominant and versatile force in the wheelchair racing ranks for over a decade and will not be willing to relinquish that reputation easily at this weekend’s Summer Down Under, with the Tokyo silver medallist out to return to his best form – already achieving four Paralympic ‘B’ standards in both the 100m and 800m.

Australian record holder Jake Lappin (Jamie Green, T54) will be determined to continue his prominence over 800m as he opens up the Paralympic year, holding the fastest seed time of 1:31.62 ahead of Samuel Rizzo (Richard Colman, T54) at 1:33.00.

22-year-old Rizzo made his mark on the global stage with a middle-distance triple at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, rewarded with a Paralympic ‘B’ standard of 2:55.32 over 1500m – just outside Kurt Fearnley’s Australian record of 2:54.75 from 2012.

The fastest wheelchair sprinters in the nation will race down the straight at the Australian Institute of Sport, with Luke Bailey (Andrew Dawes, T54)  owning the fastest 100m seed time of 14.09 ahead of Sam Carter (Fred Periac, T54) in 14.21 – setting up an enticing duel with McCracken and Samuel McIntosh (Fred Periac) when the numbers are crunched on the BASELINE system.

Seven-time Paralympian Christie Dawes (Andrew Dawes, T54) has been more familiar with the roads in recent years but will drop down from the marathon to contest races over 800m, 1500m and 5000m, while emerging talent Sarah Clifton-Bligh (Louise Sauvage, T33) will contest the most events of any athlete at the championships with seven appearances across the program.

Start lists and live results for the 2024 Chemist Warehouse Australian Wheelchair Championships will be able to be accessed HERE, with National finals to be raced on Sunday (January 21) and Monday (January 22).

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 19/1/2024