Summer Down Under | Week of World Class Wheelchair Racing

A week of world class Wheelchair Racing is set to begin at the Australian Institute of Sport today, with many of Australia’s Paralympic stars taking to the track over the course of the Summer Down Under Series – culminating in next Wednesday’s Oz Day 10k.

Hosted by Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT, the series aims to promote wheelchair racing by bringing together both the high performance and grassroots level of the sport, with an emphasis on developing athletes at varying stages of their careers through competitive racing and mentoring sessions.

Paralympic champion Madison de Rozario (Louise Sauvage) will be one of the major drawcards for the event after an illustrious 2021 which saw her win two Paralympic golds and a bronze, along with the prestigious New York Marathon.

De Rozario is entered to race over 800m, 1500m and 5000m on the track, but the Oz Day 10k might just be her most anticipated race of the week – having won seven titles, including clinching wins for the last five consecutive years.

Seasoned veterans Angela Ballard (Fred Periac) and Christie Dawes (Andrew Dawes) will also take to both the track and the road, taking on the youthful exuberance of Sarah Clifton-Bligh (Louise Sauvage) and Cormac Ryan (Louise Sauvage) – two of Australia’s brightest young prospects in the sport.

Ryan will be looking to follow in the path of Paralympic legend and 11-time Oz Day 10k winner Kurt Fearnley, who facilitated Ryan’s inception in the sport by inviting him to Homebush and placing him in one of his old racing chairs.

Having already raced the Oz Day 10k three times at the age of 15, Ryan is confident he is on the right track as he heads towards Paris in 2024.

“To be there behind the professional athletes I have watched growing up, Kurt, Madi, Rheed – it felt good to be behind them, but it also felt good to know that I was doing the same thing that they were, just a little bit younger,” he said to Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT.

Fearnley sung the praises of Ryan when speaking to Wheelchair Sports NSW/ACT and reinforced the community culture that forms the foundation of wheelchair racing.

“Cormac is my family, that’s the thing that makes us unique to a lot of other sports. You do whatever you need to do for whatever period of time that they need you, that’s who we are,” he said.

There will be no shortage of action on the track with Australia’s elite wheelchair races committed to putting on a week worth celebrating, with the likes of Rheed McCracken (Andrew Dawes), Sam Carter (Fred Periac), Jake Lappin (Fred Periac), Luke Bailey (Andrew Dawes) and Sam McIntosh (Fred Periac) set to race across a range of distances from 100m-5000m throughout the three-day track meet.  Look out for Sydney 2000 Paralympic silver medallist Paul Nunnari and London 2012 Paralympic gold medallist Richard Colman who will also be in full force on the road at the OzDay 10k.

The meet in Canberra also features two seated throws events, headlined by Paralympic bronze medallist Maria Strong (John Eden) in the F33 Seated Shot Put.

You can catch all the action for the International Wheelchair Racing Track Meet at the AIS from January 20-22, before January 23 sees the attention turned to Sydney in preparation for the Oz Day 10k taking place at The Rocks, Sydney.

By Lachlan Moorhouse, Athletics Australia
Posted: 20/01/2022