Lauren Parker moved closer to her goal of representing Australia in three events at the Tokyo Paralympics with encouraging results at the Cycling Australia Road Nationals in Ballarat last week.
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The Newcastle 32-year-old's main focus in Japan will be the paratriathlon. Parker is the world paratriathlon champion in her classification but is attempting to also qualify for two hand-cycling events - the time trial and road race.
The Ballarat event provided Parker's first competitive racing in 12 months. She clocked 24 minutes and 54 seconds for the 12-kilometre hand-cycling time trial on Thursday then 50 minutes and 22 seconds for the 40km road race on Saturday.
"I didn't go too bad," Parker said of the road race on Saturday. "It was such a tough course. One of the hardest courses I've ever done. That's the toughest course that it's allowed to be in terms of the hill we had to go up and the road surface.
"I felt that I went better in the time trial on Thursday but I still did a decent ride today. I just know that I need to improve on the road race. But I'm still happy with my results. It's given me some more fire and I know where my numbers are at and it's something to work on."
Parker was the only competitor in her classification for both races but her main objective was producing a performance that showed Cycling Australia she could be a medal hope in Japan.
"I got an email from Cycling Australia after the time trial and they basically said that two months ago I was around sixth in the world rankings but now I'm third to fourth," Parker said. "So I've improved but I'm still not there yet. For them to put me on the team for Tokyo, I need to be No.1.
"I've got some more trials at the end of March and that will be the last trial, so I really need to perform at that one and I need to prove that I'm No.1 basically there otherwise I won't get picked. It's going to really, really hard but I believe it's achievable."
Parker has paratriathlon races in Newcastle (February 20), Devonport (February 27) and Mooloolaba (March 14) before she puts it all on the line for hand-cycling qualification during a Cycling Australia camp in Brisbane at the end of March.
"They want me to do a triathlon simulation race a couple of days before I do the TT [time trial] and the road race up there, just to see me back up because in Tokyo that's how it's going to be," Parker said. "It's going to triathlon then two days later the time trial and then the road race and they've got to know that I can back up."
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