Waryk Holmes grabs dual track silver at NSW All Schools

The Bathurst T34 wheelchair racer placed second in both his 100 metres and 800 metres 15-16 years wheelchair races as he finally got to return to competition.

That he earned the podium finishes representing Saint Stanislaus' College and the Western Region Academy of Sport's Para squad at NSW All Schools for the first time made it even better.

"It felt great to race again, it's been eight or nine months since I've been on the track," Holmes said.

"I made the decision to swap schools, it's probably been the best thing I've done, to go to Stannies. They're just so supportive in my racing and everything else. It's amazing to make WRAS too. It help the confidence, it does heaps."

Though he'd not been able to race for an extended period, Holmes had still trained hard for the titles and was hoping to clock some fast times. But when he saw the Sydney track he knew that was going to be difficult.

"It was a very spongey track, it was so wet. When I got there in the morning the inner lanes were just flooded, so I looked at it and went 'Ooh, that's not going to be fun.'," he said.

"The Sydney track is a lot slower too compared to Canberra and a lot of other places ... in the rain it's just even worse."

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Holmes ended up with a 19:73 seconds effort in the 100m to claim silver, while in the 800m he was on target for a PB when forced to stop following an incident with other competitors. He did get the chance for a re-run and clocked a 2:39.98.

"So because we had some race runners in our [800m] race, one of the boys had an accident with a race runner. As I was coming up behind the other racer I had an official step out in front of me, so I just had to slam my brake. That didn't go down well, it skidded my tyres," he said.

"We had to put some paperwork forms in for a petition to be able to race the 800 again - it's got to be official. We went again and even though I didn't get my PB that I wanted, it felt a lot better to run it again.

"I look at times more than anything because they're my biggest thing, but I was happy to get the silvers."

Holmes is now working towards Canberra's Summer Down Under, the Sydney Championships and the Canberra Classic in early 2022.

Fellow WRAS Para Sport squad member Aaron Houston also ended up with a NSW All Schools medal around his neck.

The Bathurst parkrun regular won the boys 17-19 years AMB 800 metres race, clocking a time of 2:18.54.

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