Fearnley in Coast finale
CHAMPION wheelchair athlete Kurt Fearnley has declared he will draw the curtain on his decorated career on the Gold Coast next April.
The Paralympic and world marathon champion says he is “99 per cent sure” he will not attempt to qualify for a sixth Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, with the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games to be his final competition for Australia. Fearnley, who was on the Gold Coast yesterday for the unveiling of the GC2018 marathon course, said he could think of no better way to finish his career than in front of family and friends racing the first wheelchair marathon in Commonwealth Games history.
“It’s a long gap between the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast and then the Paralympic Games in Tokyo, you’re talking two-and-a-half years,” Fearnley said.
“I’ve got a young family, I’ve got a three-year-old and one that’s eight weeks away and committing for another twoand-a-half years is a solid commitment for me and the family.”
Fearnley’s “other baby” will take breath on April 4 when the Games open seven years after he was drafted in by the Gold Coast bid team to lend his support for the event.
“When it was first mentioned, (wife Sheridan and I) spoke about the ability to have these last Games in front of family,” said Fearnley, who expects to have “a couple of hundred” family and close friends on the Gold Coast cheering him on.
“And now that we’ve got our own family, it does have that added layer of meaning.
“Imagine coming up here and racing with my four-yearold, with my mum and dad, with my family and friends watching, with a new baby in Sheridan’s arms.
“These Games are going to be wild, people underestimate it. It’s going to be the most accessible, the most family-oriented, the most community Games, it’s just perfect really.”
A three-time Paralympic gold medallist, world champion and Commonwealth Games winner on the track, Fearnley is not a man that does things by halves.
He wants to win the first Commonwealth Games marathon title but knows he will have to put in the work to do it.