McCracken ready to Fly after starring in Dubai

Louise Sauvage, the New South Wales Institute of Sport’s Wheelchair Track and Road coach, celebrated Rheed McCracken’s impressive efforts at the United Arab Emirates as confidence boosts for his Paralympic campaign.

The 27-year-old McCracken, who competes in the T34 class, starred in his opening two events at the Dubai 2024 Athletics Grand Prix – the Fazza International Athletics Championships. He cracked the 50 second barrier [49.91] to take out the 400m event and finished the 100m second overall.

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His stellar performances at the championships, follow the three first placings McCracken claimed at last week’s Khorfakkan 1st WPA international meeting, and his two thirds at the 12th WPA meeting in Sharjah at the beginning of February.

And while the three times Paralympic silver medallist has the 800m event to contest tonight, Sauvage was adamant McCracken could take plenty of positives from his performances.

 “He has done so well, his demeanour has impressed me more than anything,” said Sauvage. “Rheed’s attitude towards competing is so good.

“His performances should give him a massive confidence boost . . . they ought to re-enforce to him that he can do what he has done. Besides his effort in the 400m, he did a great 100m [14.91].

“And while [the 100m] was wind assisted, the confidence an athlete gets from knowing they can go so quickly and can hit those top speeds is fantastic.”

Sauvage said while McCracken’s second place behind Tunisia’s Walid Ktila [14.71] in the blue ribbon 100m event was wind assisted, she outlined compelling reasons for it to be considered “relative”.

“It’s relative because he was in the race with the people in his classification who are at the top of the game,” she said. “If he’d done that in Australia there’d be the possibility it would’ve been dismissed as ‘oh yeah, it was wind assisted.’

“But he was racing against his opposition and getting that result – second overall  – is fantastic.”

Despite McCracken’s sterling performances, Sauvage – a nine time Paralympic gold medallist  – said he would be returning to hard yakka in the countdown to  Paris.

“We have to get more top speed,” said Sauvage. “We can still get better in anything from the first 10 to 20m start for the hundred. There are many things he can still continue to improve on, he’ll just need to get back into his routine.”

And Sauvage said the members of NSWIS’s support staff who are helping McCracken could also expect to be kept busy.  

“I’ll be tapping into more of our service team as we work out what more we can tweak . . . try to get a half percent improvement here and there,” she said.

“We’re fortunate to have world class professionals in Rheed’s corner. Emma Millett [Senior Sports Biomechanist] and Kirstie Turner [Movement Science] have offered so much by analysing video and giving Rheed instant feedback.

“Their work has been invaluable because by analysing his position at the start of the race along with other things, they’re picking up things you don’t necessarily see with the naked eye during a session.

“But their analysis  is helping Rheed to know and understand what certain aspects of his race should look and feel like. Emma’s and Kirstie’s input has given Rheed an extra dimension in terms of his race and his position.

“He also has Rebecca Haslam offering so much support and insight as his Sports Dietician, while Kellyanne Redman is doing a fantastic job in her role as Rheed’s Strength and Conditioning coach.

“It’s a great team effort.”

Sauvage is also preparing marathoner Madison de Rozario, who won the gold medal at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Japan, for her assault  on next month’s Tokyo marathon.

Daniel Lane, NSWIS