World Para Athletics Championships: Seven NSW athletes selected

2 June 2023

World Para Athletics Championships: Seven NSW athletes selected

After a long four year wait, the World Para Athletics Championships are back after a COVID-forced break. Today seven NSW athletes were selected in the 39-member National team for the 2023 edition of the championships to be held in Paris in July 8-17.

The NSW contingent are a mix of experienced campaigners and emerging stars, and have no doubt, next to the Paralympics, this is the pinnacle championships for Para athletes.

Mali Lovell, who celebrates her 19th birthday tomorrow, is the only athlete to make an Australian team debut. After two brilliant years of progression under coaches Katie Edwards and Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, she will compete in her speciality, the T36 200m. She has also been added to the 100m.

Another young athlete on the rise is Newcastle-based Luke Bailey. The wheelchair athlete (T54 class) has been in electric form in Europe last week, where he smashed his PBs across the range. In the 800m he clocked 1:36.43, over 100m he set two PBs 14.12, then 14.06. He was even better in the quarter mile, three times breaking his lifetime best with times of 48.56, then 48.39, and finally 48.24. The 25-year-old made his National team debut in 2019 at the last World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai where he was seventh in the 100m. He also competed in Tokyo at the Paralympics, where he was fifth in his 100m heat. In Paris he will compete in the 100m, 400m and 800m.

One of the most experienced NSW athletes on the team is Canberra-based Sutherland athlete, Sarah Walsh. The leg amp, T64 long jumper, is selected for her fourth consecutive world championships team, after her debut in 2015. Sarah has improved with every campaign from sixth, to fourth, then third, but as competition increases, a medal will be a terrific result. She has also competed at the Rio and Tokyo Paralympics.

Former Queenslander, Rheed McCracken, would be less familiar to the NSW athletics community, but the 26-year-old has a long and impressive record in para-athletics. Paris 2023 will be eighth National team – three Paralympics and five world championships. Only once in the last seven campaigns has he not claimed a medal. His tally is an extraordinary 12 silver/bronze medals in distances from 100m to 800m. In Paris, the T34 classified athlete will compete in the 100m, 400m and 800m.

With a longer career and even more medals than Rheed, Newcastle’s Evan O’Hanlon makes his 12th National team after his debut in 2006. Evan has stood on the podium a stunning 22 occasions. The T38 athlete will compete in the 100m.

Two-time World Para Athletics Championships medallist, Rosemary Little will compete in the T33 100m and F32 shot put in Paris. Her most recent National representation was at the commonwealth Games in 2022 where she was sixth in the shot. A teammate in Birmingham, Sarah Clifton-Bligh will compete alongside Rosemary in the 100m and shot and also compete in the T33 800m. Sarah, 19, made her debut in Birmingham.

We also recognise Sydney-based WA athlete, Madison de Rozario, former NSW based Angie Ballard, now returned to her home in Canberra, and former NSW athlete Guy Henly, now located in Melbourne.

NSW members of the Australian Team for the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships:

MEN (3)

100m: Rheed McCracken (T34, Macquarie Hunter, Louise Sauvage), Evan O’Hanlon (T38, Iryna Dvoskina), Luke Bailey (T54, Adamstown, Andrew Dawes)

400m: McCracken, Bailey

800m: McCracken, Bailey

WOMEN (4)

100m: Sarah Clifton-Bligh (T33, Sydney Uni, Louise Sauvage), Rosemary Little (T33, Hills, Blanche Herbert), Mali Lovell (T36, UTS Norths, Katie Edwards and Melinda Gainsford-Taylor)

200m: Lovell

800m: Clifton-Bligh

Long Jump: Sarah Walsh (T64, Sutherland, Matt Beckenham)

Shot Put: Little (F32, Breanne Clement), Clifton-Bligh (F32)

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Mali Lovell will make her Australian debut at the world championships (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)