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McCracken’s delayed road to Tokyo

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Novocastrian athlete Rheed McCracken was heading into the Tokyo Paralympic Games full of confidence, following a silver medal win in the 100-metre T34 at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.

In fact, if COVID-19 hadn’t happened, he would be competing against the best in the world right now.

“Heading into the championships, I’d had some of the best preparation for a major event and I was a little bit disappointed not to win but that’s what racing is all about,” he said.

“I have been very consistent in that silver medal spot, and I felt confident coming out of that and heading into Tokyo.”

That’s when the announcement came – both the Olympics and Paralympics were to be postponed for a year.

“It’s going to sound bad, but at least it was early enough, it wasn’t July,” McCracken said.

“You build into it (training), and if it was a few weeks to go that would be even harder because you would be ready to go.”

So, McCracken was faced with the challenge of having to manage his training for yet another year of preparation.

“It was very overwhelming when the games were postponed – you’re left thinking: ‘Do I need to maintain this condition for a year’ as it’s physically demanding on the body and it’s almost just not possible,” he said.

“I’m still training every day for two reasons: to keep fit in case something changes and it’s easier to keep a base fitness – it’s better to be semi fit and keep a healthy mind.

McCracken is juggling training with studying community pharmacy at TAFE. Photo: Peter Stoop

“My sessions are still hard, but not of the same intensity as if racing was coming up, like speed work – I don’t need to do so much of that.”

The problem with still training at a high level is there are no events to test out his hard work.

“Now I have more time to work on things but it’s hard not getting the racing in to test those things out,” McCracken said.

The 23-year-old is using the extra down time to his advantage as he juggles training with studying community pharmacy at TAFE.

He hopes to then move onto a Bachelor of Pharmacy at university.

“I’d really like to study at university eventually,” McCracken said.

“I’ve been out of school for a while so I’m getting back into the rhythm and hopefully I’ll go into a uni degree at some point.

“It keeps me occupied; I go to training in the morning and TAFE the rest of the time.”

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