A 10-TIME gold medallist, Paralympic champion Tim Sullivan is racking up the hours on the La Trobe University Bendigo athletics track preparing for a fifth world titles campaign.
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Sullivan moved to California Gully from Melbourne just over a month ago and is regularly at LUBAC training for the 200m and 400m to be run in Lyon, France.
It will be the fifth time the sprint star has represented Australia at world championships His first hit-out was in Lille, France in 1998.
Two years later, Sullivan dominated the T38 class as he won the 100m, 200m and 400m finals, and he also triumphed in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay finals.
He won four gold medals at the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, and the 10th was in the 4 x 100m relay at Beijing in 2008.
Sullivan competed at last year’s London Paralympics, but said yesterday that he was unlikely to race in Rio in 2016.
“I am really looking forward to these championships,” Sullivan said yesterday at the Flora Hill-based LUBAC where he has trained just about every day.
There are also weights workouts at the Peter Krenz Leisure Centre in Eaglehawk.
His training program is being overseen by Eaglehawk YMCA Athletics Club’s Terry Hicks.
“Tim is training well, and more importantly, he is injury-free,” said Hicks.
Among the many highs in Sullivan’s track career was the gold he won in the 200m at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics.
“I dedicated the medal to my dad, Frank (who passed away in 1998),” Sullivan said.
The track great is keen to race at the Oceania Masters titles for athletes over 30 years in Bendigo next January.
Sullivan’s greatest supporters are his mum, Elaine, and sisters Tracie and Jackie.
A team-mate in several Games campaigns, Tim Matthews is a coach for Australia’s track team at the titles which begin in mid-July.
Matthews was the Bendigo Advertiser Sports Star of the Year, which is now also backed by WIN Television, in 2000-01.
