Mental preparation helps Newcastle wheelchair athlete Rheed McCracken deal with late change at Paralympic Games in Tokyo

A postponed Paralympics, uncertainty surrounding the Games even going ahead and all amid coronavirus lockdowns on the homefront.

IN THE NEWS

So a late change in race format is almost par for the course given the constantly shifting environment of the last 18 months.

McCracken, a wheelchair athlete who lives at Charlestown, now faces a straight-out final in the men's T34 100 metres at Tokyo's Olympic Stadium on Monday (11:43am, AEST) with heats no longer appearing on the track and field program for August 29.

No official explanation has been provided, but only nine competitors appear on the entry list.

Regardless of what challenges arise the 24-year-old, attending his third Paralympics, feels better prepared mentally this time around compared to London (2012) and Rio (2016).

"I've been fortunate to work with a sports psychologist for a couple of years now," McCracken told the Newcastle Herald last week.

"Early on in my career I kind of neglected the mental side a little bit, I'd get to events really stressed and nervous.

"I think I needed a little bit of support in that sense and knowing yourself you need a bit of support there is one thing.

"That has been really beneficial, especially with all the change that's happened. I probably wouldn't have handled it that well before.

"Being as fit as you can be is one thing but actually being mentally ready to race is a whole other beast really.

"So lining them up is really important and something I've really tried to work on since the end of 2017."

Without any preliminary race prior to the decider, Bundaberg-born McCracken knows how competitive the field will be.

"Everyone in a final thinks they can win that race and everyone has trained hard enough to win that race," he said.

"It's just about putting yourself into a good position at the end."

The Australian representative, twice a Games silver medalist in this event, will once again meet two-time defending champion Walid Ktila of Tunisia.

They have the fastest times, just 0.33 seconds between McCracken (14.79s) and Ktila (14.46s), but haven't raced one another since the 2019 World Championships.

"Hopefully we surprise them [opponents] instead of us being surprised by them, but you just don't know because it's been so long since we've seen each other," he said.

McCracken, who trains under coach Andrew Dawes in Newcastle, backs up in the men's T34 800m heats on September 3.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: