Christie Dawes (athletics) will be heading to her third Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. After just missing out on medals at her previous appearances in Melbourne in 2006 and Glasgow 2014, the wheelchair racer will be determined to finish on the podium in Birmingham where she will contest the 1500m T54 and marathon T54. Marathons have been a mainstay in Christie’s racing world – she has top-five finishes in Berlin and Boston, a second in Chicago and a third in New York. Dawes has competed at seven Paralympic Games – her first in Atlanta in 1996 – claiming a silver and two bronze medals on the track as well as several top-10 marathon finishes. She also has two relay gold medals from the 1998 IPC World Championships in Birmingham. Christie, who became a paraplegic when she was 10 after a car accident just 11 months after her father died, married her coach Andrew Dawes in 2002 which also helped make training schedules easier after their son Charlie was born in January 2011. Andrew is also head coach of the wheelchair track/road team at the NSW Institute of Sport and guided Kurt Fearnley OAM to marathon medals at four Paralympics and one Commonwealth Games. The former primary school teacher now works presenter with ABC radio in Newcastle.