Onkaparinga's Ben Harris - aiming to race in next year's Extremity Games.
 

AN ONKAPARINGA Hills paraplegic has his sights set on the world’s utmost sports competition for people with a disability, the Extremity Games.

Ben Harris, 23, wants to compete in motocross - the sport that put him in a wheelchair seven years ago - at the Los Angeles-based games next year.

“My ultimate goal is to race in those games ... it would just be awesome,” he says.

“Ever since I found out about them a couple of months ago, I’ve been deadset on trying to practise for them.”

The Extremity Games are open to athletes with amputations or who have lost the use of their limbs, and allows them to compete in a range of extreme sports, such as wakeboarding or surfing.

In 2003, the avid motocross rider crashed and broke his back while racing in the junior titles at the South Coast Motocross Club, Old Noarlunga.

After spending a month in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, followed by two months in the Hampstead Rehabilitation Centre, the then 16-year-old was determined to continue his motocross dream.

“I think I would go crazy if I couldn’t ride. I just love it. It really clears my head,” he says.

Two months after leaving rehab, he started riding a four-wheel motorbike, but desperately wanted to get back on two wheels so set about modifying the machine.

“I got an electric shifter put on it so I could change gears, made some feet pans that my feet just slide into and recently made a cage around my legs so if I fall over, my legs don’t hit the ground.”

Last year, Harris completed an engineering and sheet metal fabrication course through TAFE SA.

He was named the best fabrication student in his class at an awards ceremony at the O’Halloran Hill Campus earlier this month.

His next challenge is to find full-time work where he can use the skills he learnt in the TAFE course.

“I would really love to get an apprenticeship, hopefully in welding,” he says.