East Maitland Public School teacher Christie Dawes was absolutely thrilled with her silver medal performance at the Beijing Paralympics. And she wasn’t the only one.
Dawes’ Australian team took silver in the T53/54 women’s 4x100m relay wheelchair race at the Birds Nest on Tuesday night and students from East Maitland Public School celebrated their teacher’s success at the school yesterday.
Dawes spoke to the Mercury yesterday after finishing her Beijing campaign and said her relay team raced in a packed Birds Nest that threatened to undermine their chances.
“I am absolutely thrilled, the girls did a fantastic job,” she said.
“We trained a lot for the relay and we had practiced our calls, but we realised when we got there that we weren’t going to hear the calls because of the noise of the crowd.
“We practiced the night before without the calls and it didn’t quite work.
“But on the night it just happened.”
Dawes’ team also included the Australian squad’s youngest member, 14-year-old Madison de Rozario, as well as Angela Ballard from NSW and Melbourne’s Jemima Moore, who brought home the silver medal run.
The Australians finished the race in 1:01:91, crossing the line behind the Chinese.
The home team took the gold in the relay in a blistering world record time of 57.61 seconds.
Now a four-time Paralympian, Dawes said her team overcame some long odds to bring home the silver medal.
“We got quite a surprise actually when we crossed second,” she said.
“I think we thought we might be in with a chance at a bronze, but as it turned out we beat the Yanks and that felt pretty good.
“I could see her (Moore) cross the line but I didn’t quite believe it until it came up on the board. That was really nice.”
Her relay success was a fruitful finish to what could have been a barren Beijing campaign for Dawes.
After suffering a crash in her first event, the 5000m, Dawes was made to compete in a re-run where she finished 6th.
She failed to reach the finals of her 800m and 1500m events.
“That was a little bit disappointing but at the end of the day I did everything I could and left every ounce of energy I had on the track,” she said.
“Based on the circumstances I thought I went ok.
“All the girls were pretty tired and mentally and physically drained from having to do two 5000s and then the whole drama of the process and of the appeal really took it out of us.”
Dawes, who is trained by her husband and team athletics coach Andrew Dawes, said that while she could never rule out a return to the track for London in 2012, a new life away from the track was beckoning.
“While I’ll never say never there are other things I would like to do,” she said.
“I am a teacher and I would like to get some full- time teaching in.
“I would also like to look at starting a family as well, that is something that we have in mind.
“You know, all those normal people things.”
And if it is life in the classroom Dawes is after, there is a good chance she will get it considering the praises sung by East Maitland Public School principal Cheree O’Neill.
“We are just so happy to grab her whenever we can, whenever she is not off training,” she said.
“She gets the same answers back from the kids as any of the other teachers, but they do give her a lot of respect.
“She is always the first to stick her hand up if something needs to be done.”
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff