O’Hanlon’s gamble delivers another gold
Anna Harrington |
To Evan O’Hanlon, every 100m sprint is a big-money gamble.
But the Australian sprinter is beating the house every time.
There have been plenty of interruptions throughout O’Hanlon’s decorated career, including two retirements, a career-threatening injury and a switch to bobsled.
But he keeps coming back to the track – and it keeps paying off.
O’Hanlon clocked 11.23 seconds in Wednesday’s T37/38 100m final in Birmingham to claim gold and defend the title he earned on the Gold Coast.
“I guess one way to explain it is I’m a problem gambler, and I like coming out here and gambling two years of funding on 11 seconds of running,” he told reporters.
The 34-year-old retired in 2016, then again in 2018.
Then, a lisfranc injury that required two surgeries looked set to end his career in 2020.
O’Hanlon returned to claim bronze in Tokyo, then turned his focus to qualifying for Winter Olympic bobsled last year.
Even priming himself for Birmingham was difficult.
O’Hanlon lives in the Czech Republic and works with coach Iryna Dvoskina by correspondence.
“In winter, I can’t get into the indoor track in Czech Republic, it’s pretty tough,” he said.
“So I was doing some sessions in minus eight degrees on the track and shovelling the snow off.”
On Wednesday, O’Hanlon delighted in his first medal he believes four-year-old daughter Ursula and two-year-old son Alfred will remember.
The five-time Paralympic gold medallist hopes it’s not the last one.
“I’ve hung on long enough that they’ve been able to come and watch and that’s pretty special,” he said.
“I would like to keep running. I know if I was training at the same level, I was before London and Rio that I feel like I could win gold again in Paris.
“But I’ve got to be able to look after my family as well. I’m on the top level of support basically, in Australia and I moved to the Czech Republic so that I can afford to keep running.
“I can’t afford to do it if I’m living in Australia on that funding.”
AAP
