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Paralympians Susan Seipel and Dylan Littlehales are among seven athletes who have been named in Paddle Australia’s team to contest the Para-canoe World Cup and World Championships this year.
With Tokyo 2020 dual gold medallist Curtis McGrath taking a year-long break after his heroics at last year’s Games, two-time Paralympic medallist Seipel and Littlehales, who have each competed at the past two Paralympics, will take a leading role in Australia’s seven-strong 2022 squad.
Also named were Amy Ralph, Mark Daniels, Ben Sainsbury, and Paralympians Kathleen O’Kelly Kennedy and John Maclean.
O’Kelly Kennedy won a Paralympic bronze medal as a member of the Australian Gliders wheelchair basketball team at Beijing 2008, while Maclean won a silver medal in Para-rowing at the same Games and has competed at a high level in several sports, including triathlon, long distance swimming, wheelchair racing, hand-cycling and basketball. He is the first athlete with paraplegia to swim across the English Channel.
“I had my accident back in 1988 when I was training for a triathlon and was hit by a truck. I did sport before my accident and afterwards my best buddy got me into paddling,” Maclean told Paddle Australia.
“The first thing we did was get a TK2 and he said that we were going to do the Hawkesbury Classic, which is 111km – and that’s how I started off with paddling.
“Now all these years later, with Para-canoe in the Paralympics, I wondered how I would go against the good guys. So I’m about to find that out.”
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Maclean said he loved being on the water.
“There’s no wheelchairs, there’s no crutches, it’s just you and the boat,” he said.
The Para-canoe World Cup will be held at Poznan, Poland from May 26-29 and the Para-canoe World Championships will be held at Halifax, Canada in August.
Paddle Australia National Performance Director Kim Crane said she expected Australia’s strong international results in Para-canoe to continue.
“Our Para-canoe team is a great mix of experience and youth and I’m looking forward to seeing them in action in the upcoming international season,” Crane said.
“I know how hard they have been working in training, so I believe we will see some really strong performances.”
By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 27 April 2022
