WA Talent Selected for Para-Athletics World Championships

Published On: 7 June 2017

Western Australia has had four athletes selected onto the Australian Para-Athletics team for next month’s World Championships in London.

Home based athletes Ella Pardy and Sarah Edmiston headline the inclusions, whilst interstaters Madison de Rozario and Chad Perris will also wear the green and gold of Australia at the London venue that hosted the track and field events at both the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Pardy – who won a relay medal at last year’s Paralympics in Rio – will race the 100m and 200m events in the T38 class and will be joined in the travelling party by coach Sebastian Kuzminski.

 

Edmiston will make her Australian Flame debut at 41, competing in the F44 class shot put and discus events after a breakthrough domestic season that saw her achieve multiple A-qualifying standards.

The Marangaroo resident, who competes in ambulant events for athletes with a single leg limb deficiency, is excited about the opportunity the World Para-Athletics Championships presents her as a developing athlete.

“It was fantastic to get the call confirming my selection today. I was confident it would come having thrown a number of qualifiers but to know that’s it now real and happening is pretty exciting,” Edmiston said.

“It’s been a big year for me so far. My coach Paul (Edmiston), who happens to be my husband, and I have worked hard to get to this point and we are on track for the world championships now. I’m ranked third in the world and hope to come home from London with a medal.

“This is the start of a four-year journey for me. I have Tokyo in my sights and to have this first opportunity is fantastic.”

 

Triple Paralympian de Rozario has earned selection in the T53 800m and 5000m races – with the former of her two events, the same discipline the 23 year-old won a world championship title in at the last IPC Championships in Doha in 2015.

The man nicknamed the White Tiger rounds out WA’s representation, with ACT based track sprinter Chad Perris heading to a second world championships. Perris will run in the T13 100m and 200m events.

Held biennially, the World Para-Athletics Championships are coordinated by the International Paralympic Committee and held in parallel to the IAAF World Championships in years that don’t feature the Commonwealth Games or Paralympic Games. The Championships were first held in Berlin in 1994.