Guy Harrison, 13, and his parents, Keith and Vickie, are doing everything to realise his Paralympics dream.
Guy Harrison, 13, and his parents, Keith and Vickie, are doing everything to realise his Paralympics dream.
It's easy to jump to conclusions when you see Guy Harrison coming down the home straight at athletics meetings. That's because the 13-year-old is almost dead certain to finish last.
But looks can be deceiving. The reality is the Napier Boys' High School pupil doesn't just regularly win but he holds the New Zealand 1500m para junior record in a time of 5min 56.86sec.
"He always finishes last because he is a para-athlete who runs with able-bodied boys," says mother Vickie of Harrison who has smashed his own record four times.
Adds Harrison: "No, I finished second last at the Colgate Games [in Dunedin in January] when I beat that boy twice."
You see the year nine pupil has cerebral palsy but has had to compete with able-bodied athletes because there's nothing else for him in the 400m and 800m events.
For the first time the NZ Secondary Schools meeting at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland opened its doors to para junior 100m, 200m and 400m.
"Guy has to have dispensation to run in the 1500m with able-bodied athletes," explains Keith, NBHS maths teacher.
Harrison tends to finish about 200m behind the leaders and although he starts with a packed field he can't help feel he's running by himself.
"It feels so annoying. It's good when someone's just in front of me otherwise I'm running by myself," says the youngster who found some company with Jacob Phillips, of Waikato, at the Halberg Junior Disability Games a fortnight ago in Cambridge, although he is 18.
"I just kind of get used to it," says Harrison who has been receiving coaching from Taradale coach Mick Cull for the past 18 months in the hope of making the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.
The teenager seems to have given rise to two factions out there - those who are behind his inclusion with able-bodied athletes and those who aren't.
"Most of them don't understand it, even fellow Hawke's Bay-Poverty Bay members," says Keith who welcomes announcers at meetings declaring his physical disability although even that seldom makes a difference to some.
Fundamentally the motive is to educate the public on the fact that Harrison outwardly looks like anyone else but he actually has a T35 physical disability (the smaller the numeral the higher the degree of disability).
Para athletes can be physically or visually impaired, therefore someone who is in a wheelchair, for argument's sake, can be last over the line and still be declared a winner based on world classification times.
Says Keith: "Guy is a bit of a test case coming through to represent New Zealand in Paralympics."
The parents see immense benefits in their son competing alongside able-bodied runners.
All that, of course, doesn't mean Harrison has had it easy.
Explains Vickie: "Sometimes we've had tears. I'll come last and it sucks."
Conversely they suspect he inspires able-bodied runners who realise how much effort Harrison puts into his race.
The parents are delighted he is pursuing his Paralympics dream but stress there's a possibility he may have a lapse and his career may be curtailed.
The ex-Tamatea Intermediate pupil was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of 3 following a "feveral convulsion" which resulted in him losing balance and mobility, as well speech and cheat death a few times.
Intense therapy followed and the youngster showed tremendous determination and courage to make incremental gains to attain goals such as a 17 handicap in golf, train five times a week with Cull and speak.
Says Taradale High School teacher Vickie: "They said he'll never ride a bike - he can.
"He can't write - he does," she says, albeit more slowly than others.
The Harrisons are indebted to Cull, paediatrician Kate Robertshawe, physiotherapist Karen Busch, podiatrist Alarna Tuck and swim instructor Lisa Rennie.
Cull says Keith asked him to coach Harrison because of their affinity at Taradale High, where the father was a PE teacher.
"I was reluctant at first because I didn't have the experience or knowledge on cerebral palsy.
"Guy gives his best and has the full respect of the rest as a cheery and valuable member of the squad."
