Queensland Para Trio Top Of the Pops in ’23 As They Line Up For More in ‘24
By Ian Hanson
Queensland Paralympic trio Benjamin Hance, Alexa Leary and Jack Ireland have ended 2023 on a high at the Hancock Prospecting Queensland Championships and have sent a message to the world: “Bring On Paris in 2024!”
The Queensland trio – Hance (St Andrews; Coach: Ashley Delaney); Leary (St Hildas; Coach: Jon Bell) and Ireland (UQ; Coach: David Heyden) were the stand-out performers as they sit on top of the world after a successful 12 months in the pool.
Hance (S14) was named the Paralympic Swimmer of the Meet at the Queensland Championships after breaking three Virtus World Records, two in the 50m backstroke, in both his heat and final, swimming 26.54 and 26.47 respectively, also clocking the fastest ever 50m butterfly time of 24.66.
The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic golden boy and 100m backstroke world record holder is thriving under Delaney’s coaching, who has him in tip-top racing condition.
As is Ireland, who re-wrote the short course world record books in Melbourne in September, before Heyden set his charge for his final long course meet of 2023 – clocking the fastest 200m freestyle time in the world this year of 1:54.71.
Ireland (S14) won bronze at the World Para Championships in Manchester clocking 1:55.38 behind Canadian world champion Nicholas Bennett in 1:54.75.
The boy from UQ, who grew up in Newcastle in NSW before the family moved to Gladstone and eventually to Brisbane and coach Heyden at UQ, will now set his sights on making the 2024 team for Paris and the world record of 1:52.40 set by Great Britain’s Reece Dunn at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
And then there is the livewire that is world champion Alexa Leary (S9) who struck gold again in the women’s 100m Freestyle S9 with a personal best time of 1:00.03 blitzing the field for the win after her incredible performance in Manchester following two years of recovery from a life-threatening accident.
The effervescent Gold Coast-based Sunshine Coaster who fought her way back to life from an induced coma after a near-death bike-riding training accident by the former champion triathlete.
She now has her sights on making the Paris Paralympic swim team under astute coach Jon Bell – as she takes Australians along for her inspirational ride – and what a united kick start it has been in 2023.
Leary knows she can get even better also revealing after Manchester how she loved the whole experience, saying: “I want the ‘big W’; the big win (in Paris) …and I could feel the athletes being with me and we all just had a lot of fun and we all supported each other; that was the biggest thing. Some of the others (really inspired me); the fact that (they) are in the water and (they) are swimming…. that was a big inspiration for me.”
And Australia’s Para athletes will have the extra incentive of the $20,000 (Gold), $15,000 (Silver), $10,000 (Bronze) and $30,000 on offer from the Patron’s Medal Achievement Incentive Fund powered by Hancock Prospecting and Gina Rinehart.
In Manchester Australia’s Para team earned a record bonus total of $445,000 – extra funding Para athletes have never seen the sight of before.
Paris beckons for the Para Dolphins who are now amongst the best teams in the world under Head Coaches Kate Sparkes and Harley Connolly.
Among the big medal winners in 2023 were Benjamin Hance ($46,250) and Katja Dedekind ($45,000) from the Hancock finding scheme - the only private performance initiative of its scale to benefit Australian Olympic and Paralympic sport medal achievers, outside Government and Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympic funding.
Australia’s Para Performance Coach Greg Towle is excited about what lies ahead for 2024, which will also include the 2024 European Championships for athletes like Cairns-based two-time London and Tokyo Paralympian Grant “Scooter” Patterson – who missed the team for Manchester this year.
“To be eligible for Paris, swimmers had to have competed at the World Championships in Manchester or the European Championships in April 2024 and also have swum at a Para World Series event,” said Towle.
“We have to send a team to Portugal to the European Championships in (April 21-27) to ensure we have as many swimmers available as possible.
“The team will be a combination of established athletes and emerging talent, and all based around performance and tracking towards making the team for Paris.
“We have established performers like Grant “Scooter” Patterson who did not make the team this year and right down to current developing athletes like Callum Simpson from Flinders on the Sunshine Coast (who has just been classified in Canada and swam well at the Queensland Championships).
“So, it will be a mix of experience and people in the youth development pathway.
“We can take up to three athletes per class, per event, but we won’t know how many slots we’ll have until the World Para announcement in January and the size of the team will be determined off the qualifiers from the Trials in Brisbane next June.”
The next event coming up is the Citi Para Swimming World Series from February 23-25 when the meet returns to Oceania in the last week of February at the Melbourne Sports And Aquatic Centre (MSAC) hosting the competition for the fifth time.
