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In 2013, long before he made history, Australian motor racing champion Toby Price was battling the physical pain of three broken vertebrae in his neck and the emotional hammer blow of being told by doctors that he would never ride or motorcycle again after an horrific accident while racing in America.Less than three years later, he became the first non-European to win the prestigious Dakar Rally, an event Price describes as 14 days of self-inflicted pain and torture.Such a dramatic turnaround paints a picture of Prices resilience, passion and drive -- attributes that have combined to produce one of Australias most talented and unsung sporting heroes.Growing up in a motor-mad family in country New South Wales, it was only natural that Price began learning his trade at the tender age of two. By four he was winning races and the idea of a career in motorsport had turned from dream to reality.From a really young age I always looked up to Mick Doohan, so I had ambitions to go down the MotoGP route, Price tells ESPN. I loved the way Mick approached everything; hes an Aussie that had the world against him and he just wanted to prove everyone wrong and go out there and race.Being an Aussie myself, I really wanted to emulate him; but I started to grow too tall and too heavy and couldnt quite go in that direction, so thats when I decided to switch to off-road racing.While his fall-back option has paid enormous dividends, it has been far from plain sailing. Tragedy struck the Price family in 2011, when his disabled sister, Minnie, passed away at age 29 from a brain haemorrhage. The event rocked Price enormously.When we lost her, it hit him harder than anybody, their father, John, told the Daily Telegraph. They got on like a house on fire. Always laughing, always being cheeky with each other. He takes her along for the ride now, as his guardian angel.And then, of course, there have been the injuries.Price has been battered and bruised in his fearless pursuit of becoming the worlds best off-road racer, and with 27 broken bones he has experienced unthinkable levels of pain and terror.Hardly a day passes when the 29-year-old isnt on a motorcycle, but in April 2013 he appeared to have run out of luck.I thought it was all over, Price tells ESPN.Racing at the AMA Hare and Hound National Championships in Lucerne Valley, California, Price crashed and broke three vertebrae in his neck. Amazingly he avoided becoming a paraplegic, but he was forced to spend six months in rehabilitation.It definitely was a tough time because you know that not a lot of people bounce back from something like that. It hit me that it could have been the last time riding a bike and I had doctors in America telling me that Ill never ride or race a motorcycle ever again.Even through it all I still always had those ambitions of being one of the best riders on two wheels in the world, so I put my head down and worked hard to get back.But the risks pale into insignificance when weighing up the rewards, particularly those that come from the monumental Dakar Rally.Forget the Bathurst 1000, the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix; this gruelling two-week motor race has rightly been labelled the toughest in the world. For Price, its the Holy Grail.The race sees almost 400 competitors from all over the globe congregating in South America for a hellish 9000 kilometre off-road journey. Riders and drivers must trek through multiple countries on gravel, sand and dirt while battling extreme heat if theyre to avoid being among the 40 percent of annual non-finishers.The first few days are pretty exciting, Price says. The event is pumping and everything is going in the right direction. But by the middle of the first week you go into shutdown mode and turn into a bit of a robot.Youre getting four, maybe five, hours of sleep a night and then youre back up trying to cover 500-1000km in a day. The amount of strain and stress and fatigue it puts on the body, theres no way to describe it. I lose around eight kilos in 14 days of racing, and Im not being shy on eating, either. That just shows how much of a strain it is on the body.In January this year, Price became the first non-European to win the prestigious event in any category; amazingly, it was just his second time competing.Now, approaching 30, Price continues to live his life -- and share with others -- one simple, yet resilient motto: Never give up.He hopes to inform others battling through adversity that dreams can still be achieved.The best lesson Ive ever learnt was to never give up. Hopefully my story kind of shows everyone that nothing is impossible and if you want things bad enough and youre willing to put the hard work and effort in, then you can achieve those things, he says.Toby Prices documentary Paying the Price premieres on Red Bull TV in December.Clearance NBA Jerseys . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. Wholesale NBA Jerseys . Barcelona also left injured defenders Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba out of its squad for the trip to Glasgow. That means that Marc Bartra will probably start again in the centre of the defence alongside Gerard Pique. https://www.nbachinajerseys.us/ ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. NBA Jerseys Outlet . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. Discount NBA Jerseys . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety.NEW YORK -- Michael Wacha had combed his hair and dressed in a button-down shirt, all ready at his locker not long after a beer shower to celebrate his first major league win. Just as he did on the mound, the St. Louis rookie got cleaned up quick. Wacha recovered from a wild start and Allen Craig hit a three-run homer for the Cardinals in a 9-2 victory over the staggering New York Mets on Tuesday night. "Its an unbelievable feeling," Wacha said. "Hopefully, theres more to come." Matt Holliday had three hits and the NL Central leaders took full advantage of a crucial error by new Mets first baseman Daniel Murphy, who was shifted over from second after slumping Ike Davis got demoted to the minors Sunday. David Freese extended his career-best hitting streak to 20 games, longest in the majors this season, and Wacha (1-0) even knocked in a run with a groundout for his first RBI. The 21-year-old righty walked three batters and fell behind 2-0 in a 37-pitch first inning but worked his way through it and soon settled in. "The first inning was rough," he said. "Just didnt have any command over my pitches. After I got out of the first I just told myself, just flush it out and just forget about it and just go out and attack the hitters the next couple of innings." Omar Quintanilla homered for the Mets, who gave up a major league-high seven unearned runs and lost for the seventh time in eight games since a season-best five-game winning streak that included a four-game sweep of the Subway Series against the New York Yankees. They dropped 13 games under .500, their lowest mark of the year. Jeremy Hefner (1-6) had a 2-1 lead until St. Louis scored five unearned runs in the fifth, capped by Craigs fifth homer. The outburst began when Jon Jay reached on a leadoff grounder to Murphy, who knocked it down on his backhand but rushed a high, off-balance throw to Hefner covering first. "Its a groundball that I should have handled, but I booted it," Murphy said. "Its not my first time playing first base, and it gave them life." Pete Kozma doubled and Hefner slammed down the rosin bag after Wachas grounder to shortstop tied the score. Matt Carpenter walked, Yadier Molina put the Cardinals ahead with an RBI groundout and Holliday reached on an infield single before Craig drove an 0-1 pitch to left-centre for a 6-2 advantage. At his best in clutch situations, Craig came in batting .400 with runners in scoring position -- the same average he had last year. "You just cant say its a fluke when a guy does what hes done," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Its for real. Hes just got a knack for getting it done." St. Louis, which owns baseballs bestt record at 42-22, added two in the seventh after Kirk Nieuwenhuis misplayed a deep fly to right for an error.dddddddddddd Holliday had an RBI single and reliever Josh Edgin, just recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas, walked Jay with the bases loaded to force in another run. "Their lineup is a test," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "They hit to all fields. They hit to all fields with power. They stay focused pitch after pitch." Shane Robinson, who replaced Craig in right field, homered in the ninth off David Aardsma to make it 9-2. Craig made a painful-looking catch in the third when he fell at the base of the wall, where his neck and the back of his head snapped back and hit the fence. "I feel all right. Probably going to be a little sore tomorrow, but not a big deal," Craig said. "It definitely jarred me a little bit." Wacha, drafted 19th overall a year ago out of Texas A&M, was making his third major league start after an impressive outing against Kansas City and a shaky one vs. Arizona. Pitching on the road for the first time, he gave up a home run to his second batter. Marlon Byrd hit a sacrifice fly and the bases were loaded when Nieuwenhuis hit a grounder up the middle that appeared headed for centre field and a two-run single that would have given New York a 4-0 lead. Kozma, however, was positioned perfectly at shortstop and made a nice play to end the inning. It was the sort of play that often goes unnoticed, but it stopped the Mets in their tracks. Wacha did not walk another batter and yielded five hits over six solid innings before Randy Choate and Keith Butler finished up. "He just was out of rhythm and every pitcher goes through it," Matheny said. "Some of em are able to still end up in the sixth inning." New York did not manage a hit after Jordany Valdespins leadoff single in the fifth. With Davis sent down, Valdespin is getting an opportunity to play regularly at second base, his natural position. NOTES: Cardinals RF Carlos Beltran, a former Mets star, was rested to give him consecutive days off. The team was off Monday and Beltran travelled home to attend commencement ceremonies for the first graduating class of his Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico. ... RHP Jake Westbrook (elbow inflammation) is scheduled to come off the disabled list and start Friday night in Miami. ... Carpenters 18-game hitting streak ended. ... Mets RHP Matt Harvey (5-0, 2.10 ERA) threw his bullpen session and is on target to make his next scheduled start in the series finale Thursday afternoon against RHP Adam Wainwright (9-3, 2.34). Harvey left Saturdays start after seven effective innings with tightness in his lower back. ' ' '