Petawawa sprinter Austin Ingram is looking to bring home a medal when he competes at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Ingram tells myFM he will be competing in the T13 100-meter at the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Sunday, August 29th (Tokyo time).
Ingram will also be part of the 4×100-meter relay on September 3rd (Tokyo time).
The Petawawa runner finished just off the podium at the 2019 world champions, missing out on a medal by 0.01 seconds.
Ingram says it was a gut wrenching feeling and he’s looking to improve on that performance when he competes in Tokyo.
Ingram says he would be happy to make it to the finals, but has his eyes set on taking home a medal.
Training through the COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for Ingram.
After doing several months of physio for an injury in the fall, when Ingram was ready to run again, outdoor tracks were closed for the winter.
The sprinter from Petawawa says he was doing pretty much everything imaginable in the dead of winter at his home, but once the ball got rolling he started to make good progress.
Thanks to the efforts of his coach, the running club and Town of Petawawa, Ingram says he was able to get into the only indoor training facility.
Ingram looks up to Canadian sprinter Andre DeGrasse who recently won gold in the men’s 200-meter, bronze in the 100-meter and bronze in the 4×100-meter races.
The Petawawa runner first looked up to DeGrasse when he got into the sport in 2017.
Ingram says watching the Canadian win gold in the 200-meter sprint was not only a huge moment for him, but for track and field across the country.
The local paralympian is running in the T13 category for athletes with moderate visual impairments.
Ingram says his eyesight is mostly impacted in low light, but doesn’t have a problem seeing the running lanes on a well lit track.
Ingram encourages others to establish a goal and strive to perform that.
The Paralympian from Petawawa says think about why you set that goal, what made you think you were capable of it and believe in yourself.
Ingram adds if you believe you can do something, the chances of it happening rise exponentially.
Ingram says he wants to bring back a medal for everyone who has supported him along his journey.
Ingram started his running career back in grade eight where he broke the Renfrew County elementary school records in the 100m and 200m sprints before making his mark at the provincial level with Valour Secondary School in Petawawa.
Ingram won 3 gold medals in the boy’s visually impaired 100m at the OFSAA Track and Field Championships in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and still holds the OFSAA record in the visually impaired 100m with a time of 11.26 seconds.
For the last 5-years he has been training with Les Coureurs de Bois Running Club in Petawawa under coach Julie Crouzat.
In 2018, Ingram broke the Canadian T13 200m national record in July at the age of 16 and then won a gold medal in the T13 100m at the 2019 Grand Prix in Paris, France.
He still holds both the 100 and 200 Canadian national marks at the present time with a time of 10.99 sec. in the 100m and a time of 22.64 sec. in the 200m and is also ranked in the top-10 in the world for the T13 100m.
He displayed his sprinting talent at the 2019 Para Athletics World Championships in Dubai. He brought his 100m record down to 10.99 seconds and clocked a fourth-place finish, just 0.01 seconds from the bronze medal.
Ingram is travelling to Vancouver on Saturday August 14th then on to Gifu, Japan on August 16th for Paralympic training camp.
The Tokyo Paralympics start on August 24th, 2021 and will wrap up on September 5th, 2021.
