By Laura Michell
Bacchus Marsh’s Ben Fawcett is gearing up to represent Australia at the Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Sydney from Sunday.
The Paralympic gold medallist will join an 11-strong Australian Steelers team aiming to become the first wheelchair rugby team to win an International Wheelchair Rugby Federation world championship on home soil.
The Australian Steelers are the reigning world champions and two-time defending Paralympic champions.
Fawcett said he was looking forward to competing at home.
“I’m really stoked to be selected. The training leading up to [the world championships] has been getting heavier and heavier and the excitement has been building,” he said.
“Everything seems to be falling into place.”
Fawcett was part of the team that won Australia’s first wheelchair rugby championship in 2014.
“Playing in front of a home crowd, there’s going to be so many more people there, so many more supporters there and I know that’s going to be better for us,” he said.
“The louder the crowd is for us, it’s just going to help us along the way.”
Fawcett and his teammates will face teams from Japan, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark and Ireland in the qualifying rounds of the competition.
Teams from US, Canada, Britain, France, Columbia and Poland will battle it out in the other qualifying pool.
The championships will be held at Sydney Olympic Park from August 5-10.
