Tassie’s Templeton aiming to make most of single shot at glory

TASMANIAN Jake Templeton will swim for gold in the early hours of Sunday morning (AEST) in what is the visually impaired swimmer’s only chance at glory due to classifications in place at the Birmingham Games.

Templeton (pictured), who was born with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, contested five events at the 2016 Paralympic Games, but will compete in just one race at the Commonwealth Games after the S13 (visually impaired) classification was limited to just one event- the 50-metre freestyle.

In his Commonwealth Games debut, the 27 year old will have a one in five chance of returning home with gold around his neck after qualifying directly into the final as no heats were required in the event. While the former St Brendan Shaw College student qualified second fastest, just 0.66 of a second separated the five finalists.

Templeton, who is the cousin of former St Kilda small forward Eli Templeton, was remaining positive ahead of the race despite not being his strongest event.

“It’s good that it’s a race I’ve always done, but it’s not exactly my pet event so I’ve had to train more for it,” he said.

“I guess it’s a bit less complicated, especially being the 50 free where there’s no questions asked, just a lot of splash and not heaps of endurance. But there is a bit of apprehension that you’ve got to get everything right otherwise it’s all over.”

While Templeton will have a much smaller schedule than his jam-packed 2016 Paralympic Games, the Tasmanian said he was thrilled the Commonwealth Games combined its able-body and para-athlete competitions rather than having them as separate events.

Templeton will swim for gold at 4.51am (AEST) on Sunday morning.