World Championship Title for de Rozario

Western Australian Madison de Rozario is world champion for the first time, after storming past the race leader in the closing stages to win gold in the T53 wheelchair 800m at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha.

Positioned amongst the pack as athletes approached the final bend, de Rozario moved off the rail and into the middle of the track, providing her the space to sprint home, steal the lead and win in a time of 1:53.86.

The newly minted world champion revealed her strategy after the race, admitting she held no expectations of the strong result.

“Everyone started to spread out with about 250m to go and I knew that every girl out there could come home strongly, so I took a risk and went wider earlier and it paid off,” she said.

“To be honest, I was just chasing a medal because that’s what I delivered two years ago in Lyon, so to get this result is amazing, I didn’t expect it to play out like this at all,” de Rozario said.

In more recent times, de Rozario has switched her focus from the shorter distance events, to the longer form racing.

“I’ve got the 5000m to come and that’s what I came here for. This is a bonus,” she said.

“It’s a completely different race though, much more tactical. Believe it or not, for us the 800m is a bit of a sprint and I’m looking forward to a jog pace in the longer event.”

The NSW based WAIS scholarship holder earlier in the meet won bronze in the 1500m, and said she is unsure how she will fare in the five kilometre event.

“The longer distances are still pretty new to me, so I’m keen to see how I will go.”

In a great result for the Australian Flame, the bronze medal was won by de Rozario’s training partner Angela Ballard (NSW, 1:54.08), with Hongzhuan Zhou (CHN, 1:53.95) winning silver.

Fellow WAIS athletes Brad Scott and Ella Pardy are also members of the Australian Flame team in Doha.

-AthleticsAus