McKillop main medal hope for Paralympic Worlds in New Zealand

ATHLETICS:DESPITE THE absence of Paralympic star Jason Smyth, there are strong medal hopes for the Irish team competing at the Sixth IPC Athletics World Championships, which get under way on Friday in Christchurch, New Zealand. They will also be another reminder too of just how quickly the London Olympics are approaching.

Organised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and like the Olympics staged every four years, these championships mark the last international competition in the sport before the London Paralympics, which take place immediately after the 2012 Olympics Games.

Smyth famously won a sprint double at the Beijing Paralympics, and, despite his visual impairment, has since become the first Paralympic athlete to compete at a European Athletics Championships – making the semi-finals of the 100 metres in Barcelona last July.

However, a back injury last month forced Smyth to withdraw from the team, which means just eight Irish athletes have made the long trip to New Zealand.

They’ve been acclimatising for the past week ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony under the experienced eye of James Nolan, the recently-appointed Irish Paralympics athletics team coach. He is a veteran of the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympics, where he competed in the 1,500 metres.

It’s no great secret where Ireland’s medal hopes lie: Michael McKillop, still only 20, won Paralympic gold over 800 metres in Beijing in 2008, in the T37 category, which includes athletes with mild cerebral palsy. The Antrim native won the same event at the last World Championships, in 2006, and last year improved his 800 metres best to 1:57.30.

McKillop has been training full-time for the championships, spending the last two months in New Zealand, and will double up in Christchurch, first running the 1,500 metres next Wednesday, in which he holds the world record, before the 800 metres on Friday week – the day before his 21st birthday. Given his reputation McKillop will be disappointed with anything less than gold.

There are similar hopes for Orla Barry, the 21-year-old from Cork who competes in the F57 discuss (wheelchair division) as the European record holder, and fifth place finisher at the Beijing Paralympics.

After that there are three well experienced athletes in Garrett Culliton, Catherine Wayland and Rosemarie Tallon – who are also all discuss-throwing specialists.

Making their major Paralympic championship debut will be Ray O’Dwyer, Ailish Dunne and Nadine Lattimore, each of them young throwing talents in the visually impaired category.

According to Nolan they’ll be using the Christchurch experience as an important stepping stone to London, where hopefully the medal hopes will be even stronger.

What is certain is that competition in the QEII Park in Christchurch will be intense, as previous championships have proven. With over 1,000 athletes from 70 countries set to compete, no medal will be easily won – and that even goes for another famous Paralympian, Oscar Pistorius.

Better known as the Blade Runner, Pistorius made an immediate impact in Paralympic sport when winning 200 metres gold at the Athens 2004 Paralympics and bronze in the 100 metres. Two years later at the 2006 IPC Athletics World Championships in Assen, he completed a clean sweep, winning gold in the 100 metres, 200 and 400 metres, and repeated that feat at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

The South African is attempting a similar sweep of medals in Christchurch, and, in the absence of Smyth, will once more be the star attraction.

IRISH PARALYMPIC TEAM (Sixth World Championships, Christchurch, NZ): Michael McKillop (Antrim). Event: T37 800m. T37 1,500m. Age: 20. Orla Barry (Cork). F57 Discuss. Age: 21. Catherine Wayland (Wexford). F51 Club. F51 Discus. Age: 35. Rosemary Tallon (Louth). F52 Discus. Age: 47. Garrett Culliton (Laois). F52 Discus. Age: 40. Nadine Lattimore (Dublin). F11 Shot. Age: 27. Ailish Dunne (Laois). F11 Shot. Age: 25. Ray O’Dywer (Kilkenny). F34 Javelin. F34 Shot. Age: 20.