Gehle wins three more golds Friday

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BY CHUCK VANDENBERG

PCC EDITOR

FORT WAYNE, Ind., - A Fort Madison man has wrapped up two more gold medals in a series of junior national paralympic games in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Caleb Gehle, 18, was coming off two gold medals and two silver medals Wednesday and Thursday and then wrapped up the Adaptive USA Junior Nationals with wins in the 100- and 400-meter wheel chair races Friday.

The event finished just eight days before Gehle and his family head to Barcelona, Spain to compete in the Cerebral Palsy World Games Aug. 5-12 with TeamUSA.

Gehle said the competitions at these events are broken down into specific categories and the classifications allow people with similar disabilities to compete against each other instead of being lumped into one group.

"The nice thing about these competitions is that they're separated into different classes including spina bifida, cerebral palsy and amputee," he said. "We're not all lumped together, like at state where someone may have an unfair advantage over someone else."

At the Iowa State Track meet, where Gehle competed during his years at Fort Madison High School, all athletes with disabilities compete in the same events with boys and girls being the only classifications used.

"I like the competition here. "It's a very friendly environment, where as in Des Moines everyone's kind out for themselves."

On Wednesday, Gehle heaved the shot 17'-5.75" which was about two and half feet further then Matthew Tomaino who through 14'- 9". Tomaino then beat Gehle in the javelin and discus events. Gehle threw the discus 29'-9", to Tomaino's 34'-10" and then took silver in the javelin with a throw of 25' compared to Tomaino's gold medal throw of 29'-6". Both Gehle's discus and javelin throws were personal records for him.

Gehle took gold in his only Thursday event, the 200-meter wheel chair race, and then took gold in both races on Friday. In the 200, Gehle won with a time of 56.11 seconds. His gold time in the 100 was 28.67 and he raced to a 1:50.73 in the 400-meter race. He also won a gold medal in the 4x100 relay with a team that asked him to join when he got to the event.

He said he had good leads in most of wheel chair races with his closest competitor being about seven seconds behind. But he said the track was very spongy and none of the racers set personal bests during the games.

Now Gehle begins to prepare for the World Games in Spain. He leaves for Europe on Aug. 4 and said the next week will be full of training and prep work for the trip.

"It's gonna be a lot more training within the next week," he said, "I don't know any times or anything I need to be at I just want to race the best I can and throw the best I can."

In 2017, Gehle competed in the junior nationals and won one gold and two silvers. He said going in April for qualifying allowed him to compete in the javeline and discus events, which were events he didn't get to compete in last year. Now he says he has a better idea of what to expect in Europe.

"I feel confident going over there just with this week even. I've learned a lot of helpful tips from other paralympic athletes that have been on TeamUSA and traveled the world. I'm honeslty just extremely honored to get this opportunity."

Gehle said without the support of his family and the community he wouldn't be able to be a part of TeamUSA.

"I want to thank everyone for everything I'm able to do because this all probably wouldn't be possible without their donations and support," he said.

Fort Madison's Caleb Gehle moves to the front of the pack in the 100-meter wheelchair race on Friday. Gehle earned four gold medals and two silvers in four events over the last three days. Photo courtesy of Mike Gehle

Adaptive, Caleb Gehle, Cerebral Palsy, fort madison, Fort Wayne, Junior nationals, paralympic, Pen City Current

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