Kurt Fearnley, Australian paralympian and marathoner who conquered the Kokoda Trail
Australian Paralympian and multi marathon winner Kurt Fearnley has conquered the Kokoda trail after an epic 10-day journey.
For those of us who know him and have seen him in action, we’re not surprised. Back in May, the 28-year-old took part in the inaugural Para Burn category of the 9th annual Balmoral Burn fun run up a very steep hill on Awaba Street in Mosman, which is put on by the Humpty Dumpty children’s charity.
He entered that race to help sick and injured kids and, in his big-hearted way, Fearnley later told me that he decided to tackle Kokoda because he wanted to help raise awareness about men’s health issues, particularly depression.
When I asked him about doing the trek, he said: “Kokoda is such a big part of Australian history and it’s my job week in-week out to race for Australia, so I thought it would be a good thing to do.”
Well, he’s done it. Yesterday Fearnley arrived at the finish, having crawled the 96km route on his hands in an epic test of endurance, courage, character, fortitude and inner strength.
He’s done a great thing. And, once gain, he’s done it for others. Kurt Fearnley is all heart, all hero.
He deserves our respect.
Here’s my original interview with Kurt (as it appeared in the Humpty Dumpty Foundation‘s second annual Good Egg magazine.)
Australian Paralympian Kurt Fearnley usually roars along in his wheelchair at 35kph but when he won the inaugural Para Burn at the 9th annual Balmoral Burn in May, he was cruising along at a mere two kilometres per hour.
But don’t think the slower pace was a comfortable ride for Australia’s wheelchair Marathon Man who has held every title for races longer than 800m.
“It was definitely a shoulder burn, my goodness. It was one of those things where every single metre of that entire race was a challenge – if you didn’t catch the wheel quick enough you would roll back down the hill,” says Fearnley.
“It was a grind and a tough slog and because we are usually travelling at 35kph it’s very rare to see or hear the crowd as you’re slugging it out. But in the Para Burn we did and it very rewarding to see people on the sidelines cheering for us, and it’s rare to get to soak that in.
“It was a fantastic and positive atmosphere and was a lot of fun; it was a really successful day.”
The 28-year-old world champion wheelchair athlete from Carcoar in country New South Wales won the inaugural burn in 5 minutes and 31 seconds – “the time was better than I was originally thinking”.
Humpty’s founder and executive chairman Paul Francis was thrilled with the expansion of the Balmoral Burn to include Special and Para Burn categories.
“This means that the race is truly a community event, open to everyone, and having an athlete of Kurt’s calibre on Awaba Street was amazing,” Francis says. “The crowd loved it, and that’s what the Balmoral Burn is all about – community involvement. The positive and warm mood on the day reflected how important the new races are for Humpty.”
Fearnley was born with lumbosacral agenesis, a condition in which his legs did not develop fully. He can feel and move them but they are not strong enough for him to walk on. But that has never stopped him.
The youngest of five boys, Fearnley was always involved in sport and played rugby league and well as taking part in school sports carnivals. He took up wheelchair racing at the age of 14 and has never looked back.
Fearnley first represented Australia at the Sydney Paralympics and four years later won the T54* 42km marathon at the Athens Paralympics despite pushing the last five kilometres on a flat tyre. He repeated the gold medal victory at the 2008 Beijing Games where he also won the silver for the 800m T54 and 5000m T54, and a bronze in the 1500m T54.
In the coming months, Fearnley will compete in the Sydney, Chicago and New York marathons before tackling the gruelling Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea with his family and friends for support.
The 96km trek is known as one of the toughest challenges for able-bodied walkers, but Fearnley plans to crawl it in a bid to raise awareness of men’s health issues including prostate cancer and depression.
“I crawled around as a kid, I didn’t use my chair as a young fella and I’m used to crawling, but 96 km through jungle is not something I have done before or plan to do again,” he says with a laugh adding that he likes to challenge himself and get out of his “comfort zone”.
“Kokoda is such a big part of Australian history and it’s my job week in-week out to race for Australia, so I thought it would be a good thing to do.”
Meanwhile, he promises to get his “arms cranking” for the second Para Burn next year – “if I’m in the country”.
*T54 is the Olympic classification for track event for athletes with spinal cord disabilities.
