MARATHON OUR LAST GOLD SHOT
AUSTRALIA’S last shot at winning more gold at the Tokyo Paralympics will come down to the hardest and most punishing event of all – the marathon.
Australia has five entrants in three of the marathon classes – and all have live chances of getting on the podium – with the races starting and finishing at the Olympic stadium.
Australia has three entrants in the women’s wheelchair race: Madi de Rozario, Eliza Ault-Connell and Christie Dawes, plus two runners in the men’s races that will pass some of Tokyo’s most iconic attractions, including the Asakusa Kaminarimon Gate, the Tokyo Skytree, the Nihonbashi and Ginza districts, Zojoji Temple, Tokyo Tower, and the Imperial Palace Garden.
Amputee Michael Roeger is the world record holder and favourite in the T46 race, while Jaryd Clifford holds the world record in the visually impaired category.
They set their world records in the same race, in Sydney in April, with one planned and the other an ‘accident’.
Clifford, who won a silver medal in the 5000m and a bronze in the 1500m, is better known as a middle distance track runner but agreed to join his good mate Roeger in the marathon as a pacer.
The plan was for him to set a strong tempo, then pull out after 30km, but he felt so good he kept going and promptly broke the T12 world record after Roeger broke the T46 record.
Mercifully, Mother Nature has come to the Australians’ rescue.
Clifford vomited and needed medical treatment after succumbing to
Tokyo’s stifling humidity during his 5000m race but the forecast for Sunday’s marathon is for cooler, wet conditions.
“It’s a different kind of beast,” said Clifford.
“And it’s a beast that I think I’ll be able to handle even better than the heat on the track in the stadium, it’s a different type of thing.”
So far, Australia has won three
medals in athletics, with Vanessa Low winning the long jump, de Rozario winning the 800m and James Turner the 400m.
Turner also collected a silver in the 100m on Saturday after being badly distracted at the start when the runner in the adjacent lane to him – Malaysian Mohamad Puzi – moved early. That was enough to throw the Australian off and, although he finished strongly to take second place behind China’s Deng Peicheng in a
time of 11.85, it cost him another gold.
The race should have been re-run and Australian officials considered lodging a protest.
But they withdrew after being told the only possible result was that Puzi – who finished fourth – would be disqualified.
“I absolutely let myself get distracted,” Turner told Channel 7.
“I saw movement next to me and my body wanted to go with it, and I let it, so I’ve really got to put the blinders on for next time.
“Come Paris, I want to be in a position where I don’t make those mistakes and I can capitalise on every opportunity.”