Australian athlete Kristy Pond beat a number of paralympic and world champion athletes, including South African Oscar Pistorius, to be crowned the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Athlete of the Month for May 2011.
Pond, 14 years old, claimed more than one-third of the public votes (35%) in a poll after winning six gold medals at last month’s Arafura Games which were held in Darwin, Australia.
She claimed gold medals in every track event from the 100m through to the 800m, as well as gold in shot put, where she set a new national record.
She is the second youngest winner of the monthly IPC award behind Great Britain’s two-time Paralympic swimming champion Eleanor Simmonds.
Pond has already made the London 2012 qualification times for the 100m and 200m and is currently ranked second in the world.
Last year she was voted Paramatta’s Sportsperson of the Year and is trained by one of Australia’s best wheelchair racers, Louise Sauvage, a winner of nine Paralympic gold medals.
