By ASHLEIGH PAHOLEK
Shrouded by river red gums and sitting adjacent to the Plenty River, Jaryd Clifford walks into the Willinda Park track and is greeted like any other athlete, with witty boy-banter and a pat on the back.
The cool wind and a friendly catch up makes the group reluctant to start the session. They don't strip down until after their warm up around the river, but after they’re warm, they are raring to go.
With six 1km repetitions planned, Jaryd and his training partners take to the track, focused and competitive.
Jaryd Clifford is 16, legally blind, a para-athlete and on the #RoadtoRio.
Lean, fit and youthful, Jaryd has dreamed of representing Australia on the world’s stage since he was a young boy. His chance is now within a fingertip’s reach.
“I don’t think [being legally blind] defines what I can do or who I have to be; I think it is a part of me,” he says.
“Some people like to push it away, but I like to accept it. It is who I am and it has made me who I am … I probably wouldn’t stop being vision-impaired because that would change who I am.
“It doesn’t define who I am, but I do accept it as being me.”
At 3 Jaryd was diagnosed with juvenile macular degeneration, a hereditary condition that creates scar tissue and blisters at the back of the eye, blocking out the central portion of sight.
At 12 Jaryd was categorised as legally blind, meaning his love of contact or semi-contact sport was over.
According to the International Paralympic committee, there are three categories for track athletes who are vision impaired: T11 is someone who is completely blind, T13 is someone with vision between two and six metres and T12 – which is Jared's category – is in the middle.
At 16 Jaryd cemented his intentions to compete at the Rio Paralympics in September with four B-qualifying times in the 1500m and one in the 5000m T12 events.
While Jaryd has multiple B-qualifying times, that is not his ticket to Rio just yet.
An A-qualifier sends an athlete straight to Rio, whereas a B-qualifier requires a board’s discretion to allow an athlete to compete.
Many of Jaryd's races are fought under tough conditions and in an older age group.
One of the freshest faces on the Australian circuit, Jaryd only felt he earned his place among the seniors after racing in Perth this year. There he ran his Paralympic B-qualifying time of 15.09.17 for the 5000m.
Over the past two years, his on-track performance has improved dramatically.
Late last year he made his senior international debut at the IPC world championships in Doha, Qatar, and although the youngest athlete on track by eight years, he came seventh in the T12/T13 5000m.
Jaryd exudes confidence along with race smarts. “When I run, I’m not always running against them, most of the time I am running against the clock,” he says.
Coming off the back of a successful summer, multiple personal bests and a scholarship to the Victorian Institute of Sport, he is a little disappointed he didn’t get the 3:56.26 A-qualifing time for the 1500m event. However, he still has high hopes.
“I know by Rio I will be able to run faster than those standards,” he says.
The majority of the Australian Paralympic team will be announced in July with an estimated 40 to 45 positions, but an A-qualifier can be run all the way into August.
At this point, there are 16 male and female athletes who have achieved A-qualifying times.
Athletics Australia para-athletics development officer Brett Watton says he believes Jaryd’s chances in Rio are strong even if he does not get the A-qualifier.
He is “young with lots of room for improvement” and he has already ranked well internationally.
Coach Max Balchin also thinks Jaryd has what it takes for Rio.
“He has come off a wonderful summer … he has no reason not to believe in his ability,” Balchin says.
Calling Jaryd passionate about running would be an understatement.
“He lives, breathes and loves the sport,” Balchin says.
Jaryd commits every day to training, every minute to strategizing and every moment to not letting his disability hold him back.
His pre-race regimen starts the night before when he watches old YouTube clips of his favourite races. On the morning of competition he gets into his zone and goes for a short run or “shake out”.
When he gets to the track, he likes to warm up extensively and rigorously because he feels that in training, the better reps come at the end. He doesn’t listen to music but likes “to get in tune with my body”.
Because of his eyesight he does most of his training on the track.
“People say to me ‘oh you’d miss the scenery’, but when I run, I don’t see the scenery anyway,” Jaryd says.
His training partners help not only with pacing and motivation, but they are the ones who guide him and help him when he's running a trail or training on gravel.
Jaryd is used to his impairment now and says it is like any other thing, you fall down once but you get back up again.
“People in my training group fall and they aren’t even vision impaired … now [on the trails] I just run and hope for the best,” he says.
His degenerative condition is only going to get worse, but Jaryd’s dream was to represent Australia at the Olympics and that dream is not dead yet.
Balchin says Jaryd will do well. “Championship racing has proven him, I think, to be quite an outstanding talent. Not only in para-events but in able-bodied,” he says.
It is something Jaryd wants to work towards his whole career, but at this year’s Games he wants to prove the work ethic that goes into being a Paralympic athlete.
“Paralympians are just as elite and they are just as dedicated to their training as the other athletes … it’s not like a free ticket,” he says.
With support and funding from Athletics Australia, competitions and training camps are lined up in the Gold Coast and in Florida in the lead-up to Rio. He has been told to train and prepare as if he is going.
Jaryd studies year 11 at St Helena Secondary College in Eltham, where he is spreading his VCE over three years instead of two. He says his teachers are very understanding and accommodating not only to his disability, but his dreams of running.
This year he could miss months of class and study, and he "probably won’t do any in Rio”, he says.
After he finishes high school he wants the same things as many other driven, young and talented people do: to go to university and study writing or journalism, to travel, and to be a professional athlete.
You can follow Jaryd Clifford’s #RoadtoRio on Instagram and Athletics Australia on Twitter and Facebook.