Name: Jon Dunkerley
Sport: Athletics
Events: T11-13 4×100 m relay, T11 400 m (world-ranked 8th)
Classification: T11 (visual impairment)
Age: 32
Associations: Ottawa Lions
Personal best: 54.70 (400 m)
Previous Paralympics: 2008 – Finished 7th, 400 m
Name: Sean Young
Sport: Athletics (Guide runner for Jon Dunkerley)
Age: 29
Associations: Ottawa Lions Track-and-Field Club, Canadian Strength Institute
Personal best: 50.62 (400 m)
Previous Paralympics: 2008
By Anne Duggan
With a shared love for light-hearted moments as well as a serious athletic focus, it’s a partnership that’s stood the test of time, and it only takes a moment to see that Jon Dunkerley and Sean Young are having the time of their lives as they enter their second Paralympic Games together.
“The 400-metre sprint is an individual event that we have made into a team event,” explains Young, Dunkerley’s guide runner for over six years.
Of course, it’s hard not to become close – when the two race, they are joined by a cloth rope called a tether.
“We’ve been dating a long time,” quips Young, who then adds, “It’s a big commitment.”
With a seventh-place performance from Beijing under their belts, the pair are set to compete in the 400 m and the 4×100 m – both distances in which they placed first at the Canadian team trials in Calgary, with times of 54.93 and 12.12 seconds respectively.
“I am really looking forward to competing,” says Dunkerley. “Last time there were no expectations but now we are ready to do quite well. Just rip it! Our goal is to podium in the 4×100 m relay.”
Dunkerley was born in Ireland but grew up in Guelph, eventually moving to Ottawa to train full-time with the Ottawa Lions club. The 32-year-old has Leber’s Amaurosis, a congenital eye disease that appears at birth or in the first few months of life, and affects around 1 in 80,000 people.
Young, a Peterborough native, came to the nation’s capital to study at the University of Ottawa and run middle-distance events with the Gee-Gees. He’s now anchored in the city, running his Canadian Strength Institute business and continuing the successful partnership with Dunkerley that features all the attributes of a happy marriage.
Consistency, perseverance, along with a chameleon-like ability to adapt and a willingness to work really hard are all part of the chemistry that also includes the more obvious quality: being a really good runner.
“(The guide) needs to be able to push the runner. I can’t push him around the track and he can’t push me,” explains Dunkerley.
This is the reason why his guide has his own list of accomplishments in track, including former Canadian National Champion in the 800 metre event.
“Training is my full-time job,” says Young. “You have to be at a certain level of performance. Even on my worst day I have to be better than Jon. It takes a high performance guide dedicated and willing to make sacrifices.”
Young balances his personal training and training with Jon with his day job as CEO of Canadian Strength Institute in Kanata. The centre works with both able-bodied and para athletes such as Chantell Bochan and Curtis Thom.
Consistency and hard work are the attributes covered by the pair’s four times a week training sessions, many of them held with the Ottawa Lions club at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, a centre that is becoming an unofficial mecca for parasport athletes.
And there’s that chameleon-like adaptability, a quality that would be quite handy for struggling spouses.
“We have learned to run in a different style, one that is not his and not mine, especially coming out of the blocks,” says Young.
The pair have also perfected the moments before the start gun goes off, he adds.
“It’s almost a religion, the certain actions we go through before each race,” the 29-year-old says of their series of prerace special handshakes and motions. “I am never going to let him down. Never.”
Especially when it comes to finishing Dunkerley’s thoughts. As Dunkerley stretches during practice, he explains a series of animal tattoos located on his powerful body. There’s a wolf, a tarantula, and an eagle.
“They are all at the top of their food chain. Nothing messes with them,” Dunkerley explains.
“Or a Dunkerley,” adds his partner Young.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE
WED., SEPT. 5 – T11-13 4×100 M ROUND 1, 8:28 A.M. ET
WED., SEPT. 5 – T11-13 4×100 M FINAL, 4:54 P.M. ET
THU., SEPT. 6 – T11 400 M ROUND 1, 2 P.M. ET