By Tom Degun

Akurt_fearnley_01-09-11ugust 31 - Australian T54 wheelchair racing icon Kurt Fearnley has admitted that despite speculation suggesting that he may retire after the London 2012 Paralympic Games, he is feeling in fantastic shape and even harbours thoughts about competing at Rio in 2016.


The 30-year-old from New South Wales has competed at every Paralympics since Sydney 2000 and has picked up 10 medals at the competition, four of which are gold.

It was anticipated that he may round off his glittering career at London 2012 where he is expected to be one of the major stars but Fearnley revealed that it is highly unlikely that he will call it a day following the event.

"I wouldn't think so, no," he said in regards to a possible swansong in London.

"I guess if you just had an absolutely perfect Games where everything goes exactly as you planned maybe it would be a possibility.

"But I am loving racing wheelchairs, my body is still improving as far as I'm concerned and I would hope that I will still be racing for a long time to come.

"Hopefully I'll be rocking in Rio in 2016."

Fearnley is widely considered as a marathon specialist having won gold in the event in the last two Paralympics and also at the 2011 IPC World Championships in Christchurch earlier this year but he is also aiming for success of the track in London.

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"I will be definitely aiming at least to do the 1500 metres and 5,000m," he said.

"I want to go there as a multi-medal chance for my country.

"But the marathon, that race is for me.

"It is the one I remind myself of every morning when I get up to train.

"But absolutely I would love to win some more gold on the track for Australia.

"The thing with track racing is that if you are in a position to be competitive in the marathon, you will be competitive on the track, that's a bit of a result of all the professional racing that is done now."

Britain's triple world champion David Weir is likely to be a major threat to Fearnley in London, while Switzerland's Marcel Hug and Canada's Josh Cassidy are two others that the Australian says will be top contenders as all were competitive in Beijing.

"There will be a lot of the same old cranky faces there in London, it would be a pretty big surprise if anyone from outside the top 10-15 in Beijing was challenging for the gold," Fearnley explained.

"'Huggy Bear [Hug] has gone from breaking into the top six or so to being a genuinely strong winning contender, Dave [Weir] is still very consistent, Josh Cassidy from Canada was in that sixth-10th bracket in Beijing and he can definitely step up.

"There are plenty of new faces that will be coming into the top 15 or so but the contenders should come from that top five or six from Beijing I think."

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