GEELONG Paralympic sprinter Kelly Cartwright has set a new Australian 100m record in Darwin only 24 hours after a major disappointment.
Cartwright, 20, was ‘‘really upset’’ when she had to miss the Athletes With Disability women’s open 100m at the Arafura Games because she couldn’t put on her artificial leg.
She’d trained for the Games since returning from last year’s Beijing Paralympics.
‘‘I was trying to get the leg on but my stump swelled up in the hot weather,’’ she said.
‘‘I was really upset but when officials said I could compete with the able-bodied women in the open 100m the next night, I felt a lot better.’’
Cartwright produced the run of her life to clock 16.38secs, smashing the Australian record of 17.31secs in the T42 class.
Her personal best time for the 100m had been 17.37secs.
Cartwright wasn’t sure whether competing against able-bodied women led to her clocking a time only 0.06secs outside the world record set at the Beijing Olympics.
‘‘I wanted to try and keep up with them for as far as I could. It might have made me run faster, it definitely felt like I had run a PB,’’ she said.
And she was pleased her time was recognised as an Australian record and that a friend had won the gold medal in the AWD women’s open 100m.
Cartwright is a Barwon Sports Academy and VIS athlete. BSA chief executive Aaron Greaves said Cartwright’s time was ‘‘a fantastic reward for all her hard work, travel and effort that she had put into her training this year’’.
Cartwright said the Arafura Games took in about 1000 athletes from South Pacific countries and had a great atmosphere.
She will compete in the long jump today and 200m sprint tonight, tackling both events in competition for the first time.
And she will not be taking any risks with her leg in the 200m. ‘‘I won’t be taking it off beforehand,’’ Cartwright said.
