Turner’s world record secures Australia’s 500th athletics medal at the Paralympic Games | Day Five
Published Tue 03 Sep 2024
A Paralympic champion once more, James Turner has successfully defended his 400m T36 crown – but it is his triumph over a debilitating bout of glandular fever that makes his world record feat extra sweet.
Executing a flawless race from start to finish, Turner displayed his might over a lap of the track, exploding at the final bend to clock 51.54 and better his previous world record which he set at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai in 2019/
Beating Kiwi rival Will Stedman and Argentina’s Alexis Sebastian Chavez, Turner’s has also hit a significant milestone for Australian athletics, collecting the country’s 500th athletics medal at the Paralympic Games.
“Well my head hurts but I’m feeling pretty bloody good!” Turner said.
“I felt decent going in the 100m but I had no idea I had broken the world record until I crossed the finish line. I had the perfect training regime and I couldn’t be more proud.
“It’s been a tough year. We’ve gone through some troubles… I'd have waves of exhaustion where I could barely walk, I was stumbling around, a bit of delirium. As soon as I'd start training I'd get worse, so we had to be really careful and come back really slowly,” Turner explained of his glandular fever.
“I didn’t think I’d be able to break a world record here today. I Just thought maybe, if I do everything right, I can scrape across the line first.”
After losing bronze to disqualification in the 5000m earlier in the week, heartbreak continued for middle distance star Jaryd Clifford (VIC, Philo Saunders) when finishing fourth in the 1500m T13 by one-hundredth of a second.
The three-time Paralympic medallist left it all out on the track to chase the elusive gold that has haunted his career, fighting it out in the last 60-metres with Russian runner Anton Kuliatin, competing for the Neutral Paralympic Team, in an attempt to finish on the podium. Neck-and-neck in the final moments of the race, the Australian put every morsel of energy into his finish, only to be pipped at the finish line, finishing in 3:44.95 for a season’s best.
“The guys came around me and I still thought I had a chance as they didn’t kick around me super hard. But I knew when I crossed the line I had a feeling I was fourth,” Clifford said.
“The emotions? It’s almost so ridiculous that it’s funny. I get DQ in the last metre (5000m) and 0.01 from a medal. I don’t know… It’s crazy that it’s three years of work and the last metre defines all of that. It’s pretty brutal and I’m shattered.”
Clifford said he would be back for Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032 to continue to search for that gold medal.
Back on the track after winning bronze in the 5000m, Madison de Rozario (NSW, Louise Sauvage) took flight once more in the 1500m T54 to finish fifth, but the race was not without its drama.
On the final lap, Switzerland’s Manuela Schaer, in her final race at the Paralympic Games, crashed into China’s reigning world champion Zhou Zhaoqian, resulting in the Swiss stalwart’s disqualification. Taking place on the final lap, away from the leading pack, the race was able to be completed.
“A fair bit of drama in that one again today,” De Rozario said.
“As soon as I came out into the stadium and felt that it had started raining again, I think I knew I was in a little bit of trouble. It’s a really fine line to how you prepare.
“That didn’t work very well in my favour. I was slipping quite a bit throughout that 15 (1500). That’s fine, that’s a fault on my part. We just know that’s how it goes sometimes.”
De Rozario stopped the clock at 3:20.32, while Swiss powerhouse Catherine Debrunner won the race with a dominant victory of 3:13.10, adding to her 800m and 5000m titles at these Games.
Nights after making an outstanding Paralympic debut, 16-year-old Telaya Blacksmith (NSW, Jacinta Doyle & Anula Costa) cemented herself as one to watch when placing eighth in the 400m T20 final.
Hailing from the remote community of Lajamanu in the Northern Territory, the sprinter relished the opportunity to hear the roar of the Parisian crowd once more, when recording 59.37.
“I want to do it again and see what happens from there. It’s just amazing that I got to run in the finals…. it’s the crowd and adrenalin, it’s so much fun,” Blacksmith said.
Although she wasn’t able to come near her Oceania record she set just days earlier, Blacksmith impressed when starting from the inside lane to make up ground on the bend, before fading on the home straight.
Wrapping up Australian proceedings on Day Five of competition, bronze medallist Dayna Crees (VIC, Gordon Talbot) rounded out her maiden Paralympic campaign with a 6.30m personal best in the Shot Put F34.
“My first Paralympics…I made it. I’m coming home with a bronze medal in javelin and a PB in shot put. I’m so stoked and so over the moon" Crees said.
At the halfway mark of the Paralympic athletics competition, Australia has secured six medals, including one gold, one silver and four bronze medals.
By Sascha Ryner, Athletics Australia
Posted: 4/9/2024
