Paralympics: Crash ends medal hopes

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

While New Zealander Gavin Foulsham crashed out of his Olympic dream in Switzerland yesterday, his Paralympic team-mate, Dave MacCalman, smashed three world records.

Foulsham was on track to qualify for the wheelchair 1500m at the Sydney Olympics - to realise his dream of competing at both the Olympics and Paralympics in the same year.

But in the semifinals of the qualifying event in the Swiss city of Delemont, the Auckland amputee crashed his chair jostling for position.

Foulsham lodged a protest to have a rerun of the race, and was successful.

But in the repeat, the Kiwi finished fifth - a fourth placing would have put him in the final and given him a place in the inaugural wheelchair event at the Olympics, a medal event for the first time.

The other New Zealander vying for an Olympic spot, Ben Lucas, did not make it past the first round.

Both athletes will still compete at the Sydney Paralympics two weeks after the Olympics end.

One Kiwi showing outstanding form for the Paralympics is quadriplegic MacCalman, who set three new world records at the Swiss track and field championships yesterday.

MacCalman, a Katikati orchardist, broke the marks for the shotput, pentathlon and javelin in the F52 disability class.

He broke the javelin record twice during the competition, with his best throw 15.09m.

MacCalman was one of the first New Zealanders to receive an American basketball scholarship, and was playing in California until he was paralysed in a diving accident 20 years ago.

He has competed at the last two Paralympics, and was on the verge of retiring from athletics after the Atlanta Games in 1996.

But MacCalman, determined to win a Paralympic medal, has stuck with it and is now one of the favourites in his three events.

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