Paralympics 2012: The British athletics team chasing gold

The team of 49 athletes includes Beijing double gold medallist David Weir who won two golds at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Mr Weir, who will compete in the 400m, 800m, 1500m and marathon at the 2012 Paralympic Games, also won silver and bronze medals at Beijing and silver and bronze at Athens in 2004.

He competes in the T54 classification which includes amputees and those with spinal injuries competing in wheelchairs.

He said: “I definitely felt the pressure going into Beijing four years ago but I’ve grown as an athlete since then and I think I proved that to an extent with my gold medals at the World Championships in New Zealand last January.

“There’s no doubt that the T54 class is one of the most fiercely competitive and exciting to watch in Paralympic sport, but I have realistic expectations and I hope that I can give the crowd something to shout about in one of the Games’ showpiece events.”

Paralympic athletes who win a gold at this year’s games will be celebrated on a set of stamps, Royal Mail has said.

Another double gold medallist on the team is Stephen Miller, who will be competing in his fifth Paralympic Games in London. Mr Miller won gold medals for the club throw at Athens and Sydney, and brought home a silver in the event from the Beijing Games.

As well as the experienced members of the team, 28 athletes will be making their Paralympic Games debut at the event.

Amongst their number are a host world record holders within their classifications. These include double world champion in the 100m and 200m, Hannah Cockroft (pictured right), 1500m world record holder, Paul Blake, and new 100m world record holder Jonnie Peacock.

The youngest members of the team at 16 years old are 100m, 200m and relay athlete Olivia Breen, 100m and 200m athlete Jordan Howe and 400m, 800m and 1500m athlete Jade Jones.

At the other end of the spectrum are 42-year-old 100m and 200m athlete Tracey Hinton, who won bronze and silver medals in Sydney and Atlanta and 38-year-old Sophia Warner, a 100m, 200m and relay athlete who won silver and bronze at this year’s IPC European Championship and silver and bronze at last year’s IPC World Championship.

Reporter Katie Razzall went to meet some of the stars of the British Paralympic athletic squad

Britain’s athletics squad at the Paralympics in Beijing, 2008 won a disappointing two gold medals, she writes. The last four years have been all about improving that dramatically. Today Peter Eriksson, the UK Athletics head coach, outlined the intention for the London Games.

“The goal is to end up in the top eight, with five to eight gold medals and 25-28 medals in total. But I think we will do better than that.”

One potential medal hopeful is Jonnie Peacock, the 19-year old bladerunner who competes against Oscar Pistorius in T44 100m.

“I’m hoping that the majority in the Olympic Park will be home fans and that they’ll remember I’m the Brit guy and Oscar is the south african and that hopefully they’ll be cheering for the right guy!”

Sophia Warner runs 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in the T35 class. She has cerebral palsy and gave up her job to concentrate on being picked.

She told me today: “For me the most people I’ve ever raced in front of is 1000 people, so I don’t think I’ve got any idea what 90,000 faces will look like.”

Derek Derenalagi is a soldier who lost his legs in Afghanistan. He’ll compete in discus. He summed it up: “I’m so excited, I’m so thankful I’m alive and I’m so honoured to represent my country on the frontline and now on the startline at the Paralympics.”

A history of success

The British team as a whole has enjoyed continued success at the Paralympic Games over the years (see below), outperforming the British Olympic team and finishing no lower than fifth overall since the first official games in 1960.

The table above shows the final rankings of the whole British Paralympic team, the British Paralympic athletics team, the whole British Olympic team and the British Olympic athletics team in each Olympic and Paralympic Games going back to 1972.

Britain’s paralympic team took home 102 medals from the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games, including 42 gold medals, and finished second overall.

Though never having been first in the ranking, Britain’s Paralympic team has been second in more than half of the summer games ever held.

The Paralympic athletics team has, however, suffered a dip in form over the past two games. At Beijing the athletic team was 18th, after picking up 17 medals. At Athens the team was 12th.

However, following a successful IPC World Championships in January 2011, where the team came in third, UK Athletics head coach Peter Eriksson said he was confident the team would do well.

Mr Eriksson said: “We’re starting to see the gradual transition to a much more professional squad with a fantastic team spirit as well as having competent performers.”

“We’ve seen a tremendous increase in the number of new athletes coming into the sport and in particular, those that we’ve been able to fast track from development through to international representation at junior and senior level, and that’s evident in this team – which means we’ve had to make some tough decisions.”

Classification

The classification of athletes based on their disabilities is key to the Paralympic Games. In each event athletes are classified by officials appointed by the international federation for their particular sport.

The classification system works in the same way as different weight categories for boxing, and is in place to ensure fair competition in events from athletes with different abilities.

In athletics there are five main groups of classes:

* Classes 11, 12 and 13 cover the different levels of visual impairment.

* Class 20 covers athletes with a learning diability.

* Classes 32-38 cover athletes with different levels of cerebral palsy – both wheelchair users (32-34) and those who are ambulant/do not use wheelchairs (35-38).

* Classes 40-46 cover ambulant athletes with different levels of amputations and other impairments, including les Autres – the term for a range of conditions, such as dwarfism, which result in locomotive disorders.

* Classes 51-58 cover athletes with different levels of spinal injuries and amputations who compete in wheelchairs