Madison de Rozario and Vanessa Low headed a ‘girl power’ night by the Australian team at the 9th World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.
Winning golds in the 800m (T53) final and the long jump (T61-63), respectively, made them the first women on the Australian team to stand on top of the podium after six days of competition. Another two bronze by Aussie women completed the gender-bender on Tuesday night.
It also put Australia firmly back in the top-five of the medal table with 15 overall – 6 gold, 4 silver, 5 bronze – leap-frogging Germany (5 gold) and Russia (4).
Ironically Low’s previous world and Paralympic medals have all been won under the German flag. But she is married to Australian Rio gold medallist Scott Reardon, and received her Australian citizenship in July 2017.
So this is her first medal for her new country.
“Bringing home the gold for my new country was really amazing,” Low said, adding that she took a while to get accustomed to the harder runway compared with the surface on the stadium’s warm-up track.
“It was a very tough won tonight. I really had to fight and dig deep. Unfortunately I couldn’t do my personal best and show what I’m capable of, but it was really great to get the win.”
Low’s fifth jump was her best with a 4.68m – below her world record for double leg amputees of 5.05m but still 27cm further than silver medallist Gitta Haenen from Belgium.
It was also the 61st medal in majors (World, Paralympic, Commonwealth Games) for Ukraine-born Iryna Dvoskina, who began coaching Australian athletes in 2003, and is looking after Low and Reardon’s campaigns for the Tokyo Paralympics.
For de Rozario, her first medal at a world championships was in the 800m in Doha 2015 and she duplicated that tonight four years later.
“I felt a little stronger than I thought I would be,” said de Rozario, who collected the 1500m silver on Monday night with a powerhouse sprint down the home straight.
Tonight in the 800m she took the lead at the bell and held off Switzerland’s took Catherine Debrunner and China’s Zhou Hongzhuan to win in 1m:52.15 – bettering’s Zhou’s winning time at the London worlds in 2017 denying her back-to-back golds.
“The 800 is a tricky one as you don’t have a lot of time and you sometimes second-guess your decisions. But (coach) Louise (Sauvage) told me to commit no matter hat decision I made.
“I saw a gap which was a little earlier in the kick than I would normally do… but I committed and finished strong.”
The final was also Angie Ballard’s third and last final, finishing 8th in 2:05.16. She placed 6th in both the 100m and 400m finals earlier in the nine-day program.
The two other medals won on Day 6 also went to women: Eliza Ault-Connell in the 400m (T54) and world team debutant Rhiannon Clarke in the 100m (T38) – both bronze.
Ault-Connell says she’s “finally getting the hang of it” – wheelchair racing at the top-level after a break of 12 years to start a family.
She warmed up for her bronze in tonight’s 400m final (55.30s) with a 5th in the 100m on Friday night, a 4th in the 800m on Saturday, and a 6th in the 1500m on Monday night.
Ault-Connell’s last world championships medal for Australia was back in 2006 in Assen, the Netherlands.
“I am relieved – absolutely. Finally this morning I started to feel my groove in my racing again. Coming back to a big international comp it took me a few races to get here.”
Clarke is making her Australian team debut – and did it in the best way possible striking her first international medal in a personal best 12.94s.
“I’m so stoked. I really can’t believe it. I was so nervous in the lead-up,” 17-year-old Clarke said.
“But once I got to the start line I thought ‘I’m here; I’ve done all the work; I can do it’.”
Teammate Ella Pardy finished 5th in the final in 13.34s.
In other results, Sam Carter once again finished one spot shy of the medals with a 4th in the 400m (T54) final in 48.04s. His heat time of 47.48 would have won him bronze.
“Honestly I’m ranked 10th in the world currently so that’s a significant improvement for me in a 400,” Carter said.
“So while I was pretty devastated with fourth in the 100, I’m actually pretty happy with fourth in the 400.”
Jake Lappin finished 5th in this morning’s heats (48.61s) and didn’t qualify for the final.
In the last track event of the night Sam McIntosh finished 6th in the men’s 100m (T52) final in 17.69s.
By Michael Angus and Margie McDonald
