AS the MVPA pennant season gets under way on Saturday, local bowler Josh Thornton will be in Perth to compete the National Para Championships.
The Murray Downs bowler will be representing Victoria in the men’s B7/8 singles and the men’s 14-point pairs from Friday.
He starts with his opening singles match against Tasmania’s Grant Hills.
Thornton will be part of a 10-person Victorian team and team up with Greg Toy in the pairs as skipper for the combination.
He is no stranger to the big stage, having won gold in the triples and bronze in the 7/8 singles at last year’s Multi-Disability National Championships, and is once again confident of a strong showing at the nationals this weekend.
“I’m going into it with good form, I’ve been playing a few tournaments the last few weeks to get ready, so I feel like I’m well prepared,” Thornton told The Guardian this week.
“I played the Murray Downs Classic a few weeks ago with my dad and brother and they were coming out pretty well over those two days.
“There’s some fine tuning that I want to do, but the bigger the competition or the more it means to me, the more I focus.
“I’m confident in myself and hopefully I bowl well when it counts.
“If I play at my best, I’ll be thereabouts, we’ll just see what happens I guess.”
It won’t be the only bowling Thornton will do out west, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and national champion set to link up with his Murray Downs teammates and compete in the National Championships in the fours competition.
Joining Thornton will be Garry McCaig, John Caldwell and “Buck” Lehmann will join Thornton for the October 20-22 competition, after the quartet won the state title in April.
“It’s going to be tough, we’ll be coming up against some of the best bowlers in the country, but you never know, four country boys from Murray Downs might just pull it off,” Thornton said.
“I know most of the teams that are going there, and while we might be the oldest team competing, that’s alright.
“There’s a bit of wisdom there among our group, but if the boys play like we did in Bendigo, we’ll be right.”
