Brandon Starc Leaps Through Pain for Silver
Brandon Starc and Hannah Dodd were among our most successful Hills athletes at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the two greats bringing home silver medals.
Starc showed amazing courage to beat a painful bruised heel – which kept him out of the recent 2022 World Athletics Championships – to capture the silver, after clearing 2.25m. New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr took the gold on a countback.
“That was tough. That was probably the toughest comp I’ve ever had,” said the Hills local. “I had to withdraw from world champs because of the bruised heel and throughout the comp, besides maybe the first jump, I was feeling every bit of that bruised heel.
“I was taking my shoe off trying to get some sort of relief, taping it here and there, but really I just had to grit my teeth and jump through it.
I don’t know what it was, I don’t know if it was family or if I just wanted something really bad and I kind of just jumped through it, and somehow I got a medal.”
Starc, a former Winston Hills Little Athletics member, did a lap of honour with his baby son Oliver in his arms. He said having his son and wife in the stands helped him push through the pain. He said it was very special to have them in the stands that night.
Brave Dodd Wins Silver
Former champion equestrian rider Hannah Dodd won a silver medal with the Australian Gliders women’s 3×3 wheelchair basketball team in Birmingham. The Arcadia local, who never lets adversity stop her from reaching for the stars, was born with sacral agenesis and spina bifida with upper limb dystonia. Amazingly, Dodd was riding before she could walk. During her sports events, she usually has to contend with injuries but that fails to stop her competitive steak from kicking in.
“While no one ever goes into a gold medal match wanting silver I’m still so bloody proud to be a part of this team,” Dodd said after the team lost 5-14 to Canada in the gold medal match. “The little kid in me is giddy at the thought of my first major international medal. The last 10 days have been unreal and I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Dodd is one of the most remarkable athletes, competing at the 2012 London Paralympics in equestrian, being the youngest competitor at 20 years. She then switched to wheelchair basketball and won silver with the Australian team at the 2015 World Under 25 Wheelchair Basketball Championships.
And now, she is the proud winner of a silver medal with her talented team-mates.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][us_image image=”68727″ size=”full” align=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row]
