RISING wheelchair racer and new national record holder Sam Rizzo has been called up for what Athletics Australia is calling a "litmus test" ahead of the Paralympics.
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The Buninyong athlete has been named for his second World Para Athletics Championships, held in Japanese city Kobe in late May.
The championships are the final major international hit-out before the 2024 Paris Paralympics, which start in late August.
Athletics Australia, in announcing a 20-strong team for the worlds, has marked this as a "stepping stone for athletes as they compete to secure crucial qualification spots".
Rizzo has been building impressive form in a bid to stake a Paralympic debut.
The 23-year-old broke the legendary Kurt Fearnley's 1500-metre national men's T54 record in mid-February.
Six years ago Rizzo had been rooming with Fearnley for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, finishing sixth in the 1500m final with Fearnley capturing silver.
Rizzo's new record time of two minutes, 50.84 seconds was a Paralympic A-qualifier and claimed a top-10 finish in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix meet in Dubai.
He returned home to the Australian domestic circuit to win the 800m men's wheel race in the Canberra Track Classic. Rizzo's meet record time of 1:41.73 was almost 14 seconds ahead of his nearest rival, New South Welshman Cormac Ryan.
Kobe will offer Rizzo a chance to showcase how much his game has improved since July when he made his return to the Australian team for the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris.
Rizzo reached the finals of the 1500m and 5000m on the track in the championships.
His next move towards the Paralympics comes about a week after Ballarat javelin thrower Kathryn Mitchell has made her intentions clear on striving for a fourth Olympic Games.
Mitchell, now aged 41, claimed a gold medal for the discipline in the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Like Rizzo, Mitchell has been in strong form on the domestic athletic circuit, winning the javelin event at the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne in February.
The Maurie Plant meet was also where Eureka athlete and Olympian Stewart McSweyn topped a world-class field in the John Landy Mile. The former Ballarat Clarendon College boarder remains in the mix for Paris.
Four-time Olympian Lisa Weightman has also been clocking strong performances in February, finishing third in Japan's Osaka Marathon in a time 2:24:43 to secure her third Olympic qualifying time for Paris.
While Weightman is not strictly a Ballarat runner, the long-distance star is a common face training about the region, including at Lake Wendouree and in Creswick where she has family.
