Blind wrestler takes on the best

-Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand

11/19/2007 - Tough guy Clinton Hall is a national wrestling champion - and he can't even see his opponents. The 25-year-old is totally blind.

But that hasn't stopped him competing against, and beating, athletes with 20/20 vision.

The Avondale resident, who is now now ranked first in the under 66kg class, even feels sorry for those wrestlers who under-estimate him.

"Guys think - 'he's easy' but I walk out there and teach them a lesson," he says.

Clinton went blind when he was two years old after getting influenza.

"I was given penicillin and I got something called stevens-johnson syndrome," he says. "I was covered in blisters and basically it looked like I had been dipped in boiling water.

"My memories of sight are very vague - it's more of a flash picture rather than a memory."

Clinton's opponents are required to touch his hands at the start of a bout so he knows where they are.

Instinct then takes over.

"Once you're on the ground you have to use all your senses," he says. "At a certain level you've got to be faster than you can see."

Clinton and his wife Andrea have two young children - Aurora, nine months, and Lucien, four. He hopes his son Lucien will also come to love the sport.

"Wrestling is quite mentally and physically challenging," he says. "And I like challenging myself against other people."

Clinton's next target is to go to the Oceania Championships in February and the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

"I have been aiming for the national title for a number of years and I have finally got it," he says. "But now my main goal is the Commonwealths.

"I'll do whatever I have to do to make it."

Clinton coaches younger athletes at Club Physical in Te Atatu.

His proteges include New Zealand junior wrestling team member Josh Clarke.

Clinton enjoys the extra challenge.

"I don't think I'll ever leave wrestling," he says. "If I stop competing I'll do more coaching."

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