South East athlete all set for 2019 Special Olympic World Summer Games

AUSTRALIAN PRIDE: Mount Gambier athlete Amechai Bawden will don the green and gold when he represents Australia in the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. Picture: JAMES MURPHY

AUSTRALIAN PRIDE: Mount Gambier athlete Amechai Bawden will don the green and gold when he represents Australia in the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi. Picture: JAMES MURPHY

LIMESTONE Coast athlete Amechai Bawden is all set for a once in a lifetime experience, when he competes in the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The 22-year-old will represent Australia in the 5km, 1500m and the 100m relay track events in what will be the biggest sporting and humanitarian event this year, with participation from 190 countries and around 7500 athletes.

Bawden makes the trip to Adelaide today to join up with the other 10 South Australians in the team, before flying to Sydney to meet the full squad.

He put his selection down to “winning many races and a lot of luck” and will join 104 fellow Australians competing in a range of sports.

It will not be his first trip overseas to compete, having previously played soccer in New Zealand as part of the Special Olympics, but this will be his biggest achievement yet.

“I am excited for a different experience,” he said.

“I don’t really know what to expect going up there.

“It will be different, it is a rich country.”

Bawden first began long-distance running about four years ago and since then has progressed in leaps and bounds.

“I got into long-distance kind of races in 2015,” he said.

“It was just something I was good at and I kept on going.”

His goal is to use the event to “move onto a bigger goal and move up to a higher level”, with the dream to represent his country in the Paralympics.

Bawden is currently recovering from exertional compartment syndrome, which is an exercise-induced leg muscle injury.

However, he said his health has improved and will give his all over the next few weeks.

“There has been a lot of recovery involved with the foam roller, trying to get back into training after the injury,” he said.

As far as preparation goes, Bawden trains every day in some way, but said he does not keep track of the hours he puts in.

“I don’t really count the hours, that would sort of put me off I reckon,” he said.

He will land in Abu Dhabi tomorrow, with a week to acclimatise before the games start on March 14.

To add further excitement to the date, he recently discovered he is a 2019 semi-finalist in Worldwide Sports award for the Seven News Young Achiever Awards in South Australia, which will be judged on the same day the games begin.

The entire games will be televised on ESPN, with the event to conclude on March 21.

The cost to attend the event has not been cheap, but Bawden received plenty of backing from the community to help fund his journey.

His father Rob said the support has been a massive help in easing the financial burden of travel costs.

“There has been a reasonable cost to get over there, which has been about $7000,” he said.

“We have had a lot of community support and people have donated money out of the goodness of their heart through a gofundme page.”

Amechai Bawden also expressed his thanks to those who have donated to his cause.

“It makes me feel a lot better that there are a lot of nice people who are willing to put their hard work in for me,” he said.

The games will kick start a busy year for Bawden, as he is set to compete in para-athletics at the Australian Track and Field Championships from April 1-7, followed by the Special Olympics Australia National Games a week later.

He will then compete in the Global Games, where he has qualified for the 800-metre event.

It is held in Brisbane this year and is the world’s largest sporting event for elite athletes with intellectual impairment.

From there he hopes to qualify for the Paralympics and continue smashing his goals.