Madison de Rozario dominates to win 800m gold with Paralympic Record

Wheelchair racing star Madison de Rozario has claimed her first Paralympic gold medal in a dominant Paralympic Record performance.

As the bell sounded in the final de Rozario surged to the front of the field and never looked back, as the metres ticked down her lead only grew. Behind the pack had to settle for silver as the WA born star powered away stopping the clock in 1:45.99. A second and a half faster than anyone had ever been at the Paralympics and just outside her own World Record.

“I wasn’t sure how that race was going to go, I know Louise, my coach and I we re-watched all the footage as soon as we got back to the village and you could tell some of the girls in the heats left everything out there and some you could tell were not 100% all out,” de Rozario said of analysing the heats with WA Paralympic great and coach Louise Sauvage.

A four time Paralympian with three silver medals, world titles and world records and three Paralympic silver medals the WAIS graduate came to Tokyo looking for that elusive gold.

“I don’t think I kind of look back at it as a big picture to be honest, I think it is a bit overwhelming when you do all that. I think it is hard as I am in my little bubble and I am an athlete and it is my job, what I love and all those different things that come with it, you don’t really know where they fit in and every single one of them is such a privilege and they are all such amazing accomplishments but out there that is what I love doing more than anything so it is nice to finally bring that one home.

de Rozario wasn’t the only WAIS medallists on Sunday with Sarah Edmiston setting a new Australian Record of 37.85m on route to bronze in the discus F64 and Robyn Lambird added another bronze in the 100m T34.