NINETEEN-year-old gold medallist Col Pearse has his sights set on the 2024 Paris Paralympics.<\/p>\n
Pearse, from Bamawm Extension, has been named the Bendigo Sports Star of the Month for August following his triumphant swim in the men\u2019s 100-metre butterfly S10 final at his first Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
The gold medal added to his collection of two silvers at the 2022 World Championships and a bronze at last year\u2019s Tokyo Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The gold medal] is nice, I\u2019m very happy with myself and everything I\u2019ve achieved so far but there\u2019s still more to be done,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Returning home following the Birmingham Games, Pearse said he\u2019s a bit of a household name around the northern Victoria region.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverywhere I go now Lockington, Echuca, Bamawm, Bamawm Extension, I don\u2019t want to say I\u2019m a celebrity, but everybody sort of congratulates you on your efforts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty cool going back to my old primary school and every single kid there new my name and wanted a photo or wanted a chat or a signature.\u201d<\/p>\n
After setting a personal best time of 56.91 seconds at Birmingham, Pearse said he\u2019ll use that as motivation for Paris.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlympic and Paralympic Games are our end goal,\u201d he said. \u201cFor me [the PB is] simply more tools in my toolbox and I\u2019m trying to make my standard a lot faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeading into next year and 2024 I\u2019ll want to be dropping a lot more time off that PB. There\u2019s always room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NINETEEN-year-old gold medallist Col Pearse has his sights set on the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Pearse, from Bamawm Extension, has been named the Bendigo Sports Star of the Month for August following his triumphant swim in the men\u2019s 100-metre butterfly S10 final at his first Commonwealth Games. The gold medal added to his collection of two […]<\/p>\n