Lachlan Munday has defied the odds multiple times in his short life.
Born three months premature, weighing only 1071 grams, Lachlan spent the first three months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit.
Now, at 11 years of age, Lachlan has overcome adversity and will travel to China to represent Australia at the 2017 IFMAR electric off-road 1/10th world championships – the pinnacle event for radio controlled car racing.
While the sport isn’t one that receives widespread attention, Lachlan’s mum, Christina, said it’s helped enormously with her son’s development.
“Growing up he tried his hand at a number of mainstream sports, but he never really felt comfortable with them,” she said. “His dad does electric off-road racing and so he decided to give it a go and hasn’t looked back.”
Lachlan picked up the sport in late 2014 and in that time has rapidly ascended the ranks, taking the family across the nation.
“We’ve travelled to South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, all over Victoria and last year we even went to the US,” Ms Munday said.
“Normally you get two years to accumulate enough points to race in the world championships, but Lachlan only had a year, so we’ve been competing at all sorts of different state championships and he’s racked up the points.”
After seeing the profound impact the sport has had on Lachlan, Ms Munday said she wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to parents in a similar position.
“It’s a unique sport. It’s really good for children who fall out of the box.
“There’s children from all walks of life, who may not fit into mainstream sports.
“It’s great for fine motor skills and concentration, however the best part is that after racing, all the children go off and play.”
