Aussie axed from Paralympics team will run for Jamaica

An Aussie champion that was dropped from the Tokyo Games team has found a new way to make his Paralympic dream come true.

Not bad for Alberto – he has two nations behind him.

Aussie 400m runner Alberto Campbell-Staines will line up at the Paralympics in green and gold — only he won’t be representing Australia.

The 28-year-old athlete has been a champion across many different age groups as he grew up including the T20 400m Australian champion in 2015 and 200m and 400m champion in 2016.

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He also claimed bronze at the 2013 INAS World Championship in 2013 in the 400m and the 4x400m relay.

The T20 classification refers to athletes with an intellectual disability.

Campbell was left with his disability as a child when he was abandoned at birth on the streets of Jamaica.

He was adopted at age nine by Australian couple Paul and Julie-Anne Staines, who were teaching at his school for children with an impairment and the family returned to Brisbane.

Five years later he became an Australian citizen.

But it was at his first athletics carnival that his ability in athletics became apparent.

Alberto Campbell (centre) with his parents Paul and Julie-Anne Staines

He has since represented Australia at international competitions and his fastest 400m time of 49.73 is 2.5 seconds outside the world record set at the 2016 Paralympics by Brazilian Daniel Martins.

After missing the Rio Games in 2016 due to narrowly missing qualification after the International Paralympic Committee reduced Australia’s athletic team quota, the ABC reported that an Aussie coach suggested he contact Jamaica to see if he could get a Paralympic berth.

And the rest is history with Campbell-Staines getting an email from Jamaica’s Paralympic Committee earlier in the year as he was selected to compete in the 400m event.

“My allegiance doesn’t go either way: I’m just in the middle,” Campbell said.

“Australia has been so good to me in the past and I’m sure they will continue to support me, no matter what happens.”

His father Paul said that the Australian officials had helped his son’s Paralympic dream come true.

“[One] actually said to me: ‘He’s competing for Jamaica, but he’ll always be an Australian’, and it just shows what a fantastic community the athletics community is,” Mr Staines said.

Campbell-Staines will race in the heats on the evening of Monday August 30.