Sarah sets her sights on Paris

Year 12 student, Sarah Clifton-Bligh, is one of four proud recipients of the 2021-22 Kurt Fearnley Scholarship.

The scholarship program is a joint venture between Commonwealth Games Australia and the Carbine Club of NSW to target talented individual para-sport athletes in NSW who received minimal funding from existing programs.

Coached by Paralympic legend Louise Savage, Sarah Clifton-Bligh is a wheelchair racer in the T33 classification. At 17 years of age, Sarah is a talented all-rounder having competed in both track racing and field events such as the seated throws, but has become one to watch in the wheelchair racing world. The scholarship provides financial support and Sarah is hoping to use this to travel with the National Wheelchair Track and Road Squad to the Swiss National Championships and an international wheelchair track race series in Switzerland next year. “The fastest wheelchair track in the world is in Switzerland and I am hoping to make qualifying times for the Commonwealth Games and the World Championships. The scholarship also provides access to the NSW Institute of Sport support and facilities, which will be wonderful,” Sarah said.

When asked how she became involved in wheelchair sports Sarah said “Having seen another young athlete on the racing track in his own racing trackchair,she turned to her mum and said I want to do that.” Sarah began racing after being lent the famous "blue chair", which has been shared among wheelchair racing icons such as Kurt Fearnley and Angie Ballard. 2021 has been particularly hard for Year 12 students, wth the uncertainty around the HSC and very little contact in their cohort. Many of the usual 'rights of passage' events have been cancelled or conducted online. For Sarah, the Covid-19 lockdown also affected her training regime. “I couldn’t train on the track but I trained with rollers on Zoom every Saturday with the other junior wheelies, which really helped my mental health during lockdown,'' Sarah said. “Although both the IGSSA and CIS Athletics Championships were cancelled due to Covid, I was lucky enough to compete at the NSW State and National Championships. They were both pretty hard this year as there was no real competition leading up to the events.” Even under what has been pretty challenging conditions for all sports men and women in 2021, Sarah achieved a PB for her 100m race at the AIS track in Canberra. With a time of under 24 seconds, this win has ranked her number 1 in the world.

“With a time of under 24 seconds, this win has ranked her number 1 in the world.”

Sarah has her sights now firmly set on the 2024 Paris Paralympics, and is hoping to represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and World Championships in Kobe, Japan, next year. Looking to the future, Sarah hopes to support and mentor emerging wheelchair athletes, just as she is being supported and mentored now. She is also planning to establish her own business making and selling clothes designed especially for people in wheelchairs. With role models such as Louise Sauvage, and the opportunity to mentor with Kurt Fearnley as part of her scholarship, we think the future is bright for this aspiring young para-athlete.