Athletics Base Camp 2022.2.17 17
Australia, 12 February – The 2022 Adelaide Athletics Invitational is held. It's an outdoor game, yes, in Australia in the southern hemisphere, and it's summer at the moment.
In the men's 5,000m battle of this invitational tournament, there is a runner who is particularly interesting.
His name was Michael Roeger, and we called him Roger, 33 years old. He is one of only two "post-80s" in this 5,000-meter battle.
In the end, Sam McEntee won the championship with a time of 13:36.87. Roger was the 13th to hit the line, and the result was frozen at 13:52.05!
With this result, Roger set a world record in the 5,000 meters for the T46 class of para track and field. In the classification of paralympic athletics, the T46 class corresponds to amputees.
The previous record was held by himself, which was outside 14 points.
Once again winning the world record, Roger was very happy.
He has participated in four Paralympic Games, and the best place is bronze. At the Tokyo Paralympic Games last year, he competed in the T46 marathon event and finished sixth with a time of 2:34:45. He is very unhappy with the result, as he just set a world record of 2:18:53 in this category last April.
Now he has set his sights on the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. Because the Paralympics are in his T46 class – there are no 5000 meters and 10000 meters , Roger is either better than marathon, or 1500 meters, or shorter distances in the Paralympic Games. Tokyo is not better than marathon, he wants to make a difference in the 1500m battle in Paris.
In fact, he holds the world record of 1500 meters T46 class - 3:46.51, set in 2017. He ran a faster 3:45.63 in 2018, but was not recognized as a record.
Let's take a look at his PBs -
800 m: 1:56.44 (2012)
1500 m: 3:45.63 (2018)
3000 m: 8:17.94 (2016)
5000 m: 13:52.05 (2022)
10,000 m: 29:24.19 (2018)
Half Marathon: 1:04:17 (2019)
Marathon: 2:18:53 (2021)