O’Hanlon and Reardon set for Doha 2015

“The remainder of the team will be confirmed at the Final Selection Meeting to be held after the close of the qualification period in the week commencing 31 August 2015.”

Australian world champions Evan O’Hanlon and Scott Reardon are on track to defend their crowns after being confirmed as automatic selections for October’s IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

The first two athletes declared as starters in the Australian Flame team bound for Doha 2015 are coached by the renowned Iryna Dvoskina. Both will compete in the 100m, with O’Hanlon to go against athletes in the T38 cerebral palsy class and Reardon to burst from blocks alongside T42 leg amputees.

“Congratulations to Evan and Scott on their automatic selection to the Australian Flame team for the IPC Athletics World Championships. The Selectors wish you the best of luck as you prepare to defend the gold medals you won in France two years ago,” Dion Russell, the Athletics Australia Chairman of Selectors, said.

“The Selection Policy calls for automatic selection to be offered to athletes who won a gold medal in an individual event at the last IPC Athletics World Championships so long as they have attained at least one Athletics Australia ‘A’ Standard in that event during this qualification period. Evan has done this in for the T38 100m on three occasions, while Scott has bettered the required mark for his T42 class seven times, ensuring that they are eligible to be picked now.

“The remainder of the team will be confirmed at the Final Selection Meeting to be held after the close of the qualification period in the week commencing 31 August 2015.”

O’Hanlon is one of the most outstanding para-athletes in history, boasting five Paralympic gold medals, a further seven titles from the IPC Athletics World Championships and the world records for the 100m and 200m T38.

A multiple winner of Athletics Australia’s Para-Athlete of the Year Award, O’Hanlon this year created history by winning the men’s able-bodied 100m at the ACT Athletics Championships, becoming the first para-athlete to do so. He missed the Australian Athletics Championships through injury, but has his sights set on double gold in the 100m and 200m in Doha.

His training partner Reardon has burst on to the scene in more recent times, winning silver on debut at the London 2012 Paralympic Games before dead-heating for gold in the 100m T42 at the IPC Athletics World Championships the following year. He also won silver in the 200m.

More recently, Reardon won gold at the Australian Athletics Championships in the men’s ambulant 100m with his time of 12.14 sending a clear message to his German rival Heinrich Popow that he is on track for great success this season.

“It’s exciting. It’s always exciting to get selected for your country. It’s good to be confirmed this early. It means that we can get back to basic training in the knowledge we are on the team, because it takes time to build up to a World Championships and the earlier you know the better,” O’Hanlon said.

“Lyon two years ago was an interesting campaign for me coming off pretty serious illness. On one hand it was disappointing that I wasn’t in the shape that I would have liked and I missed the chance to have a crack at the world record in the 400m, but on the other side of that it is great to know that despite what was an unideal preparation I am capable of pulling it together at the championship and performing well.