Tommy to take on the World

South Australian Tommy Mattinson will this week take on the best Frame Running athletes in the World at the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) International Cup in Denmark.

Mattinson - who has the Para Classification RR2/1 - will compete against 175 other athletes from 17 countries at the Cup, which will take place in Copenhagen from July 10-17.

The event will also include a Frame Running Development Camp with International renowned coaches, and the opportunity to meet Connie Hansen, who designed the Running Frame.

"Frame Running is a sport for people with cerebral palsy, arthritis and amputees, and provides people who otherwise can only get around in an electric wheelchair, manual wheelchair or walker, the ability to move by themselves, with the support of a custom-designed frame." (Race Running Australia website)

"With the Running Frame, even people with heavy disabilities may experience the feeling of running."

Mattinson will run the U15 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m events, with athletes selected based on their time compared to the World Class time.

"It will be a great trip and great competition," Mattinson said. 

"Athletes from all around the World are going - it is not very often you go to a big competition like that.

"I am excited to see what everyone is capable of, I am feeling really fast.

"I am going to try my best, I have been out here (at the Bridgestone Athletics Centre in Salisbury) training."

Starting in the sport in 2019 Mattinson said his strongest events were the 100m and 200m, where he this season recorded times of 26.99 and 1:05.42 respectively.

The now 13-year-old Western Athletics Club athlete won Gold in the U15 100m Frame Running at the 2021 Australian Track and Field Championships in Sydney.

He will be one of six Australians competing at the International Cup, following in the footsteps of his idol, Olympic sprinter Rohan Browning.

"It is an honour (to represent Australia), I have been trying to get there for a while," Mattinson said.

"I love the competition of Frame Running, the Frame gives me the freedom to run.

"My goal is to be at the 2028 Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.

"Rohan (Browning) signed my Frame at the Adelaide Invitational."

Mother, Rebecca Mattinson said she was constantly blown away by the opportunities the Frame had provided her son.

"I never thought the International Cup would feature in our calendar, and that he would be invited to run overseas, when prognosis was life in a wheelchair," she said 

"This is a game changer for us, and it comes with so many benefits - the fitness, the social, the opportunities - it's incredible.

"This has had a massive impact on our family - it's become our life, we are out here at the Track almost every day.

"Thanks to Connie Hansen."

Mrs Mattinson runs the Now I Can Run organisation in SA, and she urged more people to "come out and try the freedom of running".