OTTAWA – Coming off a strong final preparation competition in Australia, the Canadian athletics team will now make the journey to Christchurch, New Zealand for the 2011 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships which begin Friday.
“Our final warm-up in Sydney (Australia) for the IPC Worlds has been excellent” states Head Coach Ozzie Sawicki. “The athletes have taken advantage of a quality training environment at Sydney Olympic Park and are focused on the task ahead of them. A number of team members were involved in a pre-Worlds competition which featured participants from over six countries; providing both athletes and coaches an opportunity for final adjustments and some fine tuning. We continue to prepare without a great deal of attention, which has been a benefit to us, it has allowed us to be focused in this final window of preparation.”
Among the highlights from the
preparation competition:
- First place finishes for Sherbrooke, QC’s Diane Roy in the T54 wheelchair classification 200-metres and 1500-metres
- First in the T11 visually impaired 800-metres for Ottawa’s Jason Dunkerley and guide runner Greg Dailey of Toronto
- Colin Mathieson of Winnipeg, MB finished second in the T54 wheelchair 400-metres and third in the 200-metres
- Petersburg, ON’s Leah Robinson took first in the T37 400-metres
- In the men’s T54 wheelchair 1500-metres Canada placed one-two. A strong win in a very tactical race saw Jean-Paul Compaore of Sherbrooke, QC break away from the field with 150-metres to go. Guelph, ON’s Josh Cassidy finished second
- The men’s T53/54 wheelchair classification 4x400-metres
relay team struggled with their exchanges but fought back to finish in
second
Competition at the IPC Athletics World Championships begins Friday January 21; for more information including the schedule (local and EST), team list, results and more visit: www.athletics.ca/page.asp?id=533.
Emily Hooper
Coordinator, Public Relations and
Corporate Services
Athletics Canada
(613) 260-5580
x.3332
