WHEELCHAIR racer Luke Bailey’s dream of representing Australia at the 2020 Paralympics is closer to reality after a successful campaign in Switzerland.
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Bailey, 20, from Wingham, was a member of an Australian team that competed in the Swiss championships, an IPC grand prix and the Daniela Jutzeler Memorial, all in Nottwil.
He’s now rated 10th in the world for the 100 metres after finishing ffith overall from an exhausting series of nine races.
“I wasn’t ranked when I went over there,’’ Bailey explained.
“Now I’m in the top 10. I’ll be looking to improve my ranking leading up to the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. That’s my goal.’’
He found out he was in the team for Switzerland soon after injury ruled him out of Commonwealth Games trials held at Canberra in January.
Bailey raced on the Friday and Saturday soon after arriving in Switzerland. There was a break until the Thursday.
“We then raced on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and flew home on the Monday,’’ he said.
“I started in the slowed race because I didn’t have a nominated time when I went over there.’’
He managed top three places in every event he entered. This was decided on times.
“I worked by way from the slowest heat to the fastest,’’ he said.
He was fifth overall from the nine races where he managed to equal his personal best 14.54. Australian Sam Carter – the world’s quickest 100m racer, was the No 1. Carter’s time was 14.08. Bailey raced against Carter at Canberra during the Commonwealth trials before injury intervened. Whittling down the time to somewhere near Carter’s PB will be his all consuming quest in the next couple of years.
Bailey estimates there were 10 countries represented at the championships. As well as Europeans there were also starters from Thailand, Japan, Brazil and Japan.
“It’s the highest standard of racing I’ve been in,’’ he said.
“I was a great experience.’’
Bailey isn’t content with a top 10 ranking.
“That’s what I’m going to work on now – improving my times and my ranking,’’ he said.
The track season will resume in January and Bailey has his sights set on the world championships to be held in Dubai in November 2019. Now he has a world ranking Bailey understands he won’t have to trial for a place in the Australian side for the championships.
“But I’ll have to check with my coach on that,’’ he said.
Bailey will now change his regimen with the aim of competing in a half marathon in Japan in November.
He was laid low by the flu soon after returning from Switzerland but will resume training soon.
“I’ll start doing longer distances – probably up to 10kms’’ he said.
“I’ve been to Japan once before. I finished ninth, just behind the main bunch, so I’m hoping to improve on that.’’
Bailey figures that as he gets older he may look to race in marathons. But at the moment his focus is on the 100m – and Tokyo 2020.
