Cassidy confident ahead of Dubai Marathon

Special need participants with dignitaries.

"Being in a wheelchair, having cancer was the best thing that could have happened to me. I don't think I wish I could walk because it has taught me many things. It taught me how to adapt, and to get what I want out of life, so at a very early age I learned how to overcome obstacles."
Strong, powerful and encouraging words from a 'lion-hearted' wheelchair-bound Josh Cassidy who will be participating in the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon on Friday.
Born in Ottawa, Canada, Josh was diagnosed with neuroblastoma cancer in the spine and abdomen weeks after birth. He was given a very low chance of survival but was declared cancer-free after 5 years of remission, however, that left his legs partially paralysed.
"I think from being born with cancer and surviving has kind of set the tone for my life. I was always determined to get what I want out of life, no matter what the obstacle. I always loved sport as a child and wheelchair racing was a new challenge that I had a lot of fun at," said the 32-year-old on the sidelines of the press conference to announce the event.
"I find the marathon more challenging, for sure. Its training is longer and harder but there is a lot of satisfaction when you complete a marathon.
"You also get to travel and compete in new cities and races like these (Dubai Marathon) that offer prize money allows us to do what we do and try and be the best in the world," said the oldest brother who has four sisters and five brothers.
Josh overcame a lot of obstacles right from childhood but that only made him stronger.
"At first it was physical obstacles like climbing stairs but I realised that if you believe in yourself, if you work hard, if you put in the time, you can achieve whatever you want and then I applied this mentality to sport because I realised that sport is a microcosm of life. It's like voluntarily putting yourself in front of an obstacle to be able to push yourself harder and do better, and fail too, because when you fail you learn and grow from that."
In 2012, Josh won the 2012 Boston Marathon wheelchair race with a time of 1:18:25, which is the fastest wheelchair marathon time ever recorded, though won't count as a world record due to the Boston Marathon course being ineligible for world records.
Talking about his first marathon in Dubai, Josh said he was very excited and looking forward to it. "I only entered the competition about a month ago so it wasn't a part of my original plan and as you know in Canada it's very cold so I've been training indoors, but it's been going well and we will see how it goes on Friday. I would like to do well and win."
Josh has participated in three Paralympics but is yet to get his hands on a gold medal. "After Rio didn't go as I had anticipated, I'm looking forward to Tokyo 2020. The one medal that I don't have is from the Paralympic Games so that's where my sights have been set on," he said sounding optimistic.
clareto@khaleejtimes.com