TAYLA Parker and Paddy O’Brien are two young sportspeople who have risen above challenges.
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The two were recognised for that at last week’s Tamworth Regional Sports Awards as joint recipients of the Cara Hickson Memorial Award.
The perpetual award acknowledges special achievement in sport.
Parker and O’Brien epitomise that, having both had to overcome adversity.
O’Brien was last year diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma.
It required an intensive series of treatment and affected his capacity to play sport at the level he was.
Instead he has directed his sporting energies into coaching.
He applied for, and was appointed, a trainee coach for the new NIAS water polo program, which saw him design practice sessions and implement them at the squad training weekends.
He also travelled to New Zealand for the Pan Pacific Games as assistant coach of the Sydney Uni Barbarians.
Parker is registered with Ausrapid as an AWD in the T20 category, which is intellectual impairment, and has excelled in both para events and competing against girls her age without a disability.
At her Peel cross-country carnival she took out the 15yrs girls’ division.
She went on to win silver in the AWD event at the state carnival and qualify for the nationals held in Western Australia.
There she crossed the line second but just missed out on a medal, with two runners after her running closer to their category times and pushing her back to fourth.
This year she also made the jump across to the track and, at the school carnival, blitzed the field to win the 1500m in record-breaking time.
She slashed 11 seconds off the old mark of 6mins 33.6secs, which had stood for 19 years, completing the two-and-a-half laps in 6mins 22.4secs.
At the regional carnival she cut another four seconds off that, and then at the state carnival got down to 6mins 10secs.
It wasn’t enough to get her a medal but she did pick up silver in the AWD 800m.
Most recently she won bronze in the 12-15yrs 800m para run at the NSW All Schools Championships.
As was the case in Western Australia she was second across the line – nine seconds behind the winner – but was pushed back to bronze on calculations of disability to time.
She’ll have the chance to add to her medal collection next month when she competes at the nationals in Adelaide.