Fearnley fires at Hunter Track Classic

Wheelchair track & road star Kurt Fearnley secured victory at the Hunter Track Classic over the weekend, with several more NSWIS athletes winning medals.

In front of his hometown crowd, Fearnley triumphed in the men’s wheelchair mile over American Josh George to highlight the night’s results, powering past his opponent on the final straight to secure a memorable victory.

“It was awesome out there. Really, really good. Everybody got stuck in to it and we finished a fair bit quicker than I thought we would which is great,” Fearnley said to Athletics Australia.

“I’ve never raced like that before, with the crowd in the outer lanes on the track, and it made for an awesome environment. They were so close. It kind of felt like you were in a tunnel. It’s always good to race here in my home town of Newcastle.”

Fearnely’s fellow NSWIS athlete Guy Henley was also in strong form, with the Paralympic hopeful notching a world championship B-qualifier of 47.59m in the men’s discus.

In his first competitive outing for 2015 Henley said he was looking forward to building momentum throughout the year.

"It’s a good result for this early in the year, and a great sign ahead of Nationals later this domestic season. I just want to keep building on it across the season and that should deliver strong results for me in Doha,” Henly said.

Several more NSWIS athletes featured prominently at the event, including Nick Hough winning men’s 110m hurdles gold and Madeline Heiner taking honours in the women’s 5000m.