WORLD PARA ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS DUBAI - DAY 8 PREVIEW
Published Thu 14 Nov 2019
James Turner can complete a golden double in Dubai when he tackles the final of the 400m (T36) at the 9th World Para-Athletics Championships today.
Turner was the fastest qualifier (55.67s) from Wednesday’s heats and he slowed down to a virtual jog the last three metres of his race to conserve a little energy.
“I didn’t push too hard because I’ve got the final coming up. There’s still always a few nerves in heats,” he said.
Th plan was simple from coach Iryna Dvoskina, who will have succeeded in bringing a 63rd medal to Australia (Commonwealth, Worlds, Paralympics) if Turner wins 400m gold on Thursday.
“She said ‘Start off fast, go easy on the straights, and don’t finish worse than third’.”
That was the automatic qualifying standard – first three from each heat.
Turner, who won 800m gold at the Rio Paralympics, is making a successful transition to the shorter distances since the two-lap race has been eliminated from the Games schedule.
The 23-year-old won gold in the 100m (T36) for cerebral palsy athletes on Sunday night, with a magnificent surge over the final 25 metres.
In other action on Day 8 – the penultimate day of competition here in Dubai - miracle mile man Jaryd Clifford, who kicked off Australia’s world campaign in Dubai with a gold in the 1500m (T13) last Thursday night, returns a week later for the 5000m final.
Two Rio Paralympic medallists in Brayden Davidson – gold in the 2016 Games long jump (F36) final – and Claire Keefer – bronze in Rio’s shot put (F41) final - start the build-up to Tokyo in Dubai tonight.
They both medalled at the last world championships in London two years ago, and will be keen to keep the trend going.
Keefer’s coach John Eden has already enjoyed success with a couple of his pupils in Dubai: Sarah Edmiston (mentored by John, coached by her husband Paul Edmiston) took silver in the discus (F64) on Sunday, and Marty Jackson bronze in the shot put (F38) on Monday.
Brianna Coop has had to withdraw from the 200m (T35) final tonight after having inflamed a stress fracture in her foot when finishing 5th in the 100m final on Sunday.
She has missed the past three weeks of training to try to further strengthen her foot. But what she needs now is total rest back in Australia so she is fully fit for the national titles in Sydney next March.
Rheed McCracken will try to add to his 100m (T34) silver from last Sunday, when he races the heats of the 800 (T34) tonight. The final is scheduled for Friday night.
Today’s racing all see a new event on the world championships program – the Universal relay. It will also be on the 2020 Tokyo program.
It replaces various wheelchair and amputee class relays and involves four groups in the one 4x100m event.
Vision-impaired athletes run the first leg, then amputees, then cerebral palsy category athletes, with wheelchair racers bringing it home. There is no baton, but athletes must tap each other in a required zone.
Australia is in the fourth heat on Thursday morning, with the final later tonight.
Paralympic program manager at Athletics Australia Jon Turnbull said it is a good opportunity for Australia to grab a medal in this inaugural event.
“We’ve got some of the fastest individual athletes, in each of their classes, in the world as we’ve seen with the events here in Dubai,” he said.
“One of the key challenges is fielding athletes who aren’t still competing in their disciplines at the time as well as finding the right combination.”
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) wants to showcase the disability classes with an eye-catching, unique event in world athletics.
-ENDS
Michael Angus
michael.angus@athletics.org.au
Margie McDonald
mcdonaldmargie58@gmail.com
