After just missing out on Commonwealth Games selection, Buninyong athlete Sam Rizzo has sent a reminder to Australian selectors he's still about, dominating to win a 10km event at the Gold Coast Marathon.
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The 21-year-old scored a convincing win in the CPL Wheelchair 10km in a time of 23 minutes and 59 seconds, almost eight minutes ahead of his nearest rival.
"It was a really good weekend," Rizzo said. "About five weeks ago I came back from overseas in Switzerland at a track meet over there.
"I had a little break, but got back into the preparation for this race, I sort of just treated it like a time-trial for our next block to see where I'm up to and see where I'm at.
"I was aiming for anything in the low 20s, so the time was pretty decent for me, I'm where I thought I'd be."
Back home this week, Rizzo said he would head to Townsville within the next couple of weeks as he prepares for a series of road racing events throughout August.
"We've got the Albert Park race the first weekend of August, then City to Surf then the Ballarat Road Race at the end of August," he said.
Rizzo was unlucky not to be named in the Australian Commonwealth Games team for this month's event in Birmingham, but would double down on his efforts over the next four years with a hope of making Australia's world championship, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games squad in 2026 where Ballarat will host athletics.
"It was pretty close," he said. "I went overseas, went to Dubai and had Summer Down Under earlier in the year in Australia. It works off times within the Commonwealth, so you don't as such get an A and B Grade qualifier time, it goes off your rankings in a certain time period. I was close, but not quite there unfortunately."
While having competed in events as far as a half-marathon, Rizzo said he would focus most of his attention on the track and the 1500m event.
"There's a marathon and 1500m event for our classification," he said. "Next year we've got World Opens and a few other events, so I'll be working hard to get some times after that.
"After that, we'll work towards Paris and the Paralympics (in 2024).
Despite being forced to watch on from home this year, Rizzo said he was very excited to see how the Australian team goes in Birmingham later in the month.
"I'm really excited to watch the 1500m and the marathon, I'll be keeping a close eye on them," he said.
He said he also could not wait to hopefully be on the starter's line in Ballarat 2026.
"At the moment I want to get really good on the track, but hopefully move onto the marathon down the track," he said.
"Ballarat is going to be great. I was really excited when I heard that athletics was going to be here. Home town, home track.
"I haven't heard anything too much about the marathon, but we've got plenty of nice courses around Ballarat, it would be a great spot to hold it here.
"I train a lot around Lake Wendouree, or around Victoria Park or even out near Mount Mercer sometimes on that nice stretch of road out there. Hopefully it'll be here for sure.
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