Wheelchair Marathon Winner Kurt Fearnley Makes Historic Jungle Hike

posted on Oct 19 by Roseanne in the Disability News, Paralympics, Wheelchair Sports category

Paralympic games medalist and marathon winner Kurt Fearnley trekked sixty miles of the rugged terrain of Papua New Guinea on a mission to raise awareness of depression and men’s health issues. The site, the notorious Kokoda Trail, comprises 60 miles of mountains and dense jungle. Fearnley and a team hiked nine hours a day over 11 days in November, 2009, Fearnley literally crawling on his hands through rock and mud every step of the way. Wayne Weatherall, who lead Fearnley’s hike said of him, “To use the word superhuman or superhero is not going too far from the truth.”

Amazingly, Fearnley is not the first to crawl the Kokoda Trail. He was inspired by Corporal John Metson, who in 1942 crawled for three weeks after being shot in the ankle. He refused to let his comrades be burdened with carrying a stretcher. Fearnley, however, is trying to make a different point. “I want to be as little amount of burden on my friends and family as I can, but I know there’ll be parts of Kokoda when I’m going to have to ask for help.” Fearnley credits his family for his success. Although he was born missing the lower part of his spine, he was treated no differently from his brothers, playing sports, fishing and hiking together. “They’re the blokes who made me the way I am, that made sure I wasn’t a passenger, I was a participant.”

Although Fearnley is used to winning medals in a wheelchair, for this challenge he had to train in a different way – he had to relearn how to crawl. He spent 18 months developing the stamina the trek would require by climbing stairs and crawling for several hours each day. He also developed special padding for his hands and torso to withstand the grueling hike. The Kokoda Trail offers a number of other challenges – high temperatures, disease-carrying mosquitoes, and torrential rainfall. It is famous for a number of battles fought between Australian forces and the Japanese during WWII. Today the Kokoda Trail is a popular, if difficult, hiking destination. In recent years several hikers have died attempting the trek.

Fearnley is a nine-time medalist in the Paralympic Games. On October 9th, 2011 he won the Bank of America Chicago marathon. He will be in New York City on November 6, 2011, hoping to add to the four victories he has collected there.

Sources:
http://running.competitor.com/2011/10/news/former-nyc-wheelchair-champ-makes-superhuman-trek_40069
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/more-sports/australias-most-inspirational-athlete-confronts-the-toughest-challenge-of-his-amazing-life/story-e6frey6i-1225738549918

Image sources:
heraldsun.com.au
au.news.yahoo.com