Central Coast Academy of Sport are very excited and proud to announce that one current CCAS Future Stars Athlete Nicola McDermott (High Jump), and two previous Future Stars Athletes, Dylan Littlehales (Para-canoe) and Matt Dawson (Hockey), have qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. McDermott, Littlehales and Dawson are three of thirty Regional Academies of Sport (RAS) athletes who will be representing Australia at the end of this month.
It is a testament to the determination of these athletes for developing holistically over the course of their training and during their preparations to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, given the challenging conditions that COVID-19 has presented to the world.
Nicola has qualified to make her Olympic Debut in the Athletics Field category for High Jump. In April 2021, Nicola competed at the Australian Track and Field Championships, held in Sydney, and made the two-metre clearance, being the first Australian female to ever do so. On this jump she broke the Australian record and secured her spot to Tokyo. Nicola has then gone on to break her own record, by clearing 2.01 metres at the Stockholm leg of the Diamond League earlier this month.
For Dylan, Tokyo will be his second Paralympic Games competing in Canoe Sprint. He made his Paralympic Debut in Rio 2016 and placed sixth in his semi-final. In 2018, Dylan won his first international medal, a Bronze, while competing in the men’s kayak KL3 at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Para-canoe World Cup in Hungary.
This will also be Matt’s second Olympic Games, making his debut in the Australian Field Hockey Olympic Team in Rio 2016. The year following, Matt competed as part of the Kookaburras, who won the 2017 World League Final and was named runner-up of the 2017 Kookaburra of the year.
CCAS Program Manager Robyn Low-Hart said “The talent coming through the Regional Academies of Sport is evident with athlete’s past and present competing in the pinnacle of sporting competitions, The Olympic Games. To have been a part of the Regional Academies as a steppingstone for such success highlights the importance of the programs.” CCAS is so proud of these athletes and will be cheering you all on, along with everyone else, from back home on the Central Coast- Good Luck!
A full list of RAS 2021 Tokyo Olympic representatives can be found on the below link:
https://www.regionalacademies.org.au/2021/07/08/1822/
