Commonwealth Games Flashback: Kurt Fearnley treasures wheelchair debut in Delhi

THE heat and craziness of Delhi in 2010 holds a special place in the heart of wheelchair champion Kurt Fearnley.

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THE heat and craziness of Delhi in 2010 holds a special place in the heart of wheelchair champion Kurt Fearnley.

That was the first time the men’s wheelchair was on the program of the Commonwealth Games.

And fittingly it was an Australian quinella in the T54 1500m with Fearnley taking gold from Geelong’s Richard Colman.

Kurt Fearnley wins gold in the 1500m T54 at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

“I loved it,” Fearnley recalled this week. “It had a lot of chaos around it in the lead-up but I really enjoyed it.

“There are very few events in the world where you can finish your event and then jump into a tuktuk to go home.

“At one stage I had 100 kids around me because unfortunately with all the security issues they didn’t get to engage with a lot of the athletes.

“It was certainly something different and after it I jumped on a train and headed out to the Taj Mahal.”

Gold medallist Kurt Fearnley.

Silver medallist Richard Colman.

The Delhi Games came at an interesting time of the three-time Olympic gold medallist’s career given the previous year he’d completed an arduous 96km crawl along the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea.

He had also been nominated for the prestigious Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a disability award.

Unfortunately his second Commonwealth Games experience wasn’t as good four years later in Glasgow.

A flu bug that he jokingly refers to as “Glasgow ebola” hampered him in the defence of his title.

Kurt Fearnley claimed silver in difficult circumstances in 2014. Picture: Adam Head

Fearnley finished second to England’s Olympic champion David Weir in the 1500m event.

“I swear the flu I got in Glasgow was one step down from ebola, it was the worst,” he said.

“But the people were great and the amount of para events was the best I had seen.”

Fearnley has had his eye on the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games from the moment it won the bid back in 2011.

He knew back then it was going to be the perfect way to end his career with the 37-year-old to compete in the first wheelchair marathon held at a Commonwealth Games.

“I haven’t raced for Australia in Australia since the very first one (at the Sydney 2000 Olympics),” Fearnley said.

“I’m going to have 100 and something family up there and I couldn’t have scripted a better way to finish.”

Originally published as Commonwealth Games Flashback: Kurt Fearnley treasures wheelchair debut in Delhi