Weston’s Tyson O’Neil has added a silver medal from the Australian Goalball Championships to his ever-growing collection.
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The 13-year-old was a member of the NSW junior team that went down to a hard-hitting Victorian side in the final.
“We played our best, it was good to get to the gold medal game,” he said.
“We pushed ourselves really hard.”
O’Neil took up the sport for vision-impaired athletes just two years ago, and is one of the youngest players in the NSW side.
O’Neil scored more than half of his team’s goals at the competition and was named in the All Tournament Team (the top six players from each division).
“It was a pretty good feeling – I will carry it along with me for years to come,” he said.
The competition was held at Kings School in Sydney during the school holidays.
This was O’Neil’s second year in representing NSW at the national championships – his team also secured silver in 2015.
He was also a member of the NSW team that scored bronze at the Pacific School Games in Adelaide last year.
O’Neil – who aspires to represent Australia at the 2020 Paralympics – is also a promising sprinter, having set records in his division at state and national level.
The Kurri Kurri High School student set a record in the T13 under-15 boys’ 100-metre race at the NSW Combined High Schools titles last month.
He will compete at the NSW All Schools meet in Sydney this week (October 13 to 16), where he will be vying for the chance to represent the state at the School Sport Australia Athletics Championships for the third year in a row.
O’Neil’s efforts in goalball and athletics have earned him the junior athlete with a disability award at the Cessnock City Sportsperson of the Year awards for 2014 and 2015.
Not familiar with goalball? Check out the video below.