New deal gives Paralympic hope for wounded military
With disabled UK athletes triumphant at the BT World Cup, our next generation of Paralympians is likely to feature many more people who have already represented their country – on the battlefield.
The British Paralympic Association (BPA) and forces charity Help for Heroes (H4H) launched their new partnership today, at the start of the high-profile BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
They hope to secure funding for projects that help sick and wounded servicemen and women into the highest echelons of sport for disabled people.
They will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Private Derek Derenalagi, who has moved from sick bed to Paralympic Games, where he is likely to be one of Britain’s top athletes.
The 35-year-old, who lost both his legs in an explosion while serving in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, received funding from H4H to attend the BPA’s Talent Transition Programme – exactly the sort of venture the new partners hope to support.
At the launch of the partnership, at the Manchester Regional Arena, Private Derenalagi said: “Getting involved in competitive sport and now competing at the elite level has been amazing.
“H4H and the BPA have really helped me to take my sport to the next level, and now I’m aiming to compete for Paralympics GB in London, something that I’ve dreamed about since watching the Beijing Paralympics from my hospital bed.”
Britons Jonnie Peacock and Richard Whitehead in the 100m action at the BT Paralympic World Cup
Blade Runner
The five-day Paralympic World Cup features some of the world’s top international disabled athletes participating in some of the sports that will form part of the Paralympics in London, now less than 100 days away.
The main attraction is the world’s most celebrated Paralympian, “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius, who is competing in the 200m in the T44 category, which relates to the nature and degree of disability.
The South African, who is a four-times gold-medallist and reigning champion in T44 100m, 200m and 400m, is hoping to become the first Paralympian to take part in the Olympic Games as well.
Pistorius, a double-amputee, has already achieved the Olympic “A” qualifying standard time but is expected to have to do so again before selection for the South Africa squad for London 2012.
He is a hot favourite for the Paralympic events, and this week’s World Cup in Manchester is an ideal opportunity for him to demonstrate his immense skill and speed running on his revolutionary carbon-fibre prosthetic blades.
But it is not just Pistorius who is likely to thrill the crowds: more than 200 athletes from 30 countries are taking part in the world’s biggest annual international multi-sport tournament for disabled people.
Last staging post before the Paralympics
Four world records were broken at the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester today, writes Channel 4 News Reporter Katie Razzall. There were seven gold medals for British athletes. It's the first day of the five-day event and today was all about athletics.
The crowd - 5,000-strong and packed with school children - screamed for Oscar Pistorius, the most famous Paralympic athlete. He ran almost at the end, defending his 200m title here with ease.
But Britain's Graeme Ballard set a new world record in his 100m sprint - 11.98 seconds.
Pistorius' friend and often competitor in his 100m race, Jonnie Peacock, broke the British record in that event in Manchester today.
There are so many more races in every distance than in non-disabled sport. Athletes are classified by disability. So there were 100m sprints here today for example called T36 (which means cerebral palsy runners), T34 (wheelchair racers with the same), T11/12 (visually impaired runners competing with a guide beside them) and T42/43/44 (runners on carbon fibre blades).
It sounds complicated but the crowd loved it.
As for the athletes, this is one of the last staging posts ahead of the Paralympics. They're sizing up the competition and, crucially, trying not to peak too early.
Chance to acclimatise
They will compete in wheelchair basketball, athletics, seven-a-side football and boccia – a sort of challenging petanque, where precision and accuracy are paramount.
Pistorius is representing the Rest of the World, who are competing against Great Britain, Europe and the Americas.
For international competitors, the World Cup offers an opportunity to acclimatise to British conditions (although whether the weather this week will in any way match that during the games in August and September is anybody’s guess).
For British athletes, it is an opportunity to shine and get into prime form ahead of selection for the Paralympics squad, and maybe the chance to record confidence-boosting personal bests before the games.
One of Britain’s top hopes, wheelchair racer David Weir, has had to pull out of this week’s events following a crash.
But the likes of highly rated Ben Rushgrove, a discus world-record holder in the F44 classification, as well as Derenalagi, who is competing in the seated javelin, are participating on home soil.
Double gold medallist Graeme Ballard sets a new T36 00m world record on the day’s first event at the BT Paralympic World Cup