Wed, 22 Apr 2009 Sally Coffey / Motor Boats Monthly

A club on the Isle of Wight has raised funds to buy a catamaran to enable people with disabilities to get on the water

The Fishbourne Sailability Club has raised funds to buy a catamaran to enable its members to get a taste of motorboating.

The Fishbourne Sailability Club was founded in 2002 to enable people with disabilities to enjoy water-based activities in both sailing and motorboats. Last year it looked into a suitable motorboat and the catamaran was chosen due to its ease of access, stability and working space.

The boat is now ready for use and to celebrate a naming ceremony will be held on Saturday 25 April at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Fishbourne, Isle of Wight from 12pm. The ceremony will be presided over by the High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight, Gabrielle Edwards and yachtsman, Geoff Holt.

A spokesperson from the club said, "We believe that the availability of this boat will make a real difference to many people with disabilities on the Island."

For more information call 01983 882560.

• First quadriplegic female to accomplish feat
• Boat's direction controlled by blowing through straws

Caroline Davies The Guardian,











Paralysed from the neck down, Hilary Lister used advanced technology allowing her to steer and control the sails by sucking and blowing through plastic straws.

Having battled the elements, exhaustion and the severe limitations of her own body, Hilary Lister, 37, sailed into Dover and the record books today as the first female quadriplegic to sail solo around Britain.

The Oxford-educated biochemist, who suffers from a rare, progressive neurological disorder that has left her paralysed from the neck down, completed the final leg of a marathon voyage undertaken in a series of 40 day-long sails.

Using advanced technology allowing her to steer and control the sails by sucking and blowing through plastic straws, she sailed alone with a support team only helping her into and out of her boat, Me Too. After being briefly becalmed in the Channel last night, she finally crossed the finishing line to cheering crowds at 6.45pm.

"It's a privilege to be back in Dover," she said from her boat at the quayside. "The killer was when the wind died just east of the entrance to the harbour but unbelievably it picked up just as I sailed in."

She said the highlight of her challenge was seeing marine wildlife at close quarters. "Just seeing whales 35ft long fully breached out of the water was incredible," she said. "Two of them jumped like dolphins, it was amazing."

Lister, from Canterbury, Kent, suffers from reflex sympathetic dystrophy and can only move her head, eyes and mouth. Tempted in her darkest moments to end the physical pain she suffers daily and the frustration at being imprisoned in her body, she has said "sailing saved my life".

"I'm so relieved to be home but looking forward to the next challenge," she said before a bottle of celebratory champagne was opened. "One thing I've learnt is that you can't predict the future, we couldn't even predict tomorrow's weather so I'm not ruling anything out or anything in."

In 2005 she made history by becoming the first quadriplegic to sail solo across the Channel. Her voyage around Britain began in Dover in June last year when she sailed the length of the south coast. But she was forced to halt the attempt at Newlyn, Cornwall, last August due to weather and technical difficulties.

Plans to resume in Plymouth in early May were delayed after she suffered breathing difficulties while preparing. She was taken to hospital and placed under observation, but eventually set off at dawn on 21 May.

Since then she has attempted to sail on four days each week. The series of sails took her along the east coast of Ireland, and then down the east coast of Scotland and England. "In terms of experiences … we had some incredible receptions from people who had waited hours to watch us come in," she said as she arrived in Ramsgate ahead of the final 15-mile leg to Dover.

She added: "I'm probably fitter than when I left and almost certainly in better health. Sailing makes me happy, it gives me a reason to get up in the morning – but at the same time I am absolutely kippered."

She experienced the first signs of disease as shooting pains in her legs as a teenager. Determined to be a biochemist, she pressed on to study at Jesus College, Oxford.

But the disease did eventually deprive her of an academic career, as well as a secondary career as a clarinet teacher.

By the time she married her husband, Clifford, in 1999 she had begun to lose the use of her hands and arms.

Confined to her house and a wheelchair, she was introduced to sailing by a friend in 2003.

Her "sip and puff" system uses three straws that are connected to sensitive pressure switches to change the boat's direction, control the sails and the boom.

She hopes to have raised £30,000 from her voyage for her charity, Hilary's Dream Trust, which assists disabled and disadvantaged adults who want to sail.



Sip and puff control


This is the first time the "sip and puff" system had been tested in such challenging conditions, according to Lister's team. Her boat, Me Too, is an Artemis 20: a six-metre carbon fibre keelboat, designed by Rogers Yacht Design under commission by Chichester-based Vizual Marine.

She controls the boat using the "sip and puff" system, developed by Steve Alvey of Calgary, Canada.

The system uses three straws which are connected to sensitive pressure switches. A computer is mounted in front of Hilary.

A gentle sip on one straw will cause the boat to go to starboard, while a puff will take the boat to port. The second straw controls the winch motor for both sails in a similar fashion. The third straw allows her to control her Raymarine autopilot, to trim one sail relative to the other and raise or lower the height of the boom.

AN Ilminster student's dreams of playing football with his friends may soon become a reality as he undergoes surgery to help him walk correctly.
Harry Rutter, aged 16, of Blackdown View was born with cerebral palsy, a condition which in his case severely restricts movement in the left side of his body.
He has always been able to walk but with considerable difficulty, and doctors told him the way he moved would eventually lead to curvature of the spine.
In February, he had an operation on his leg at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, to prevent this. The surgery left him temporarily relying on a wheelchair and mobility scooter.
There is more surgery for the student of Holyrood School, Chard, on Thursday but he remains defiant.
Harry, a huge football fan, said: "I'm not treated any differently at school by my friends anyway, but it would be brilliant to be able to play football with them instead of just watching from the sidelines.
"I'm studying registered materials, cooking, humanities and PE, but it is a pain because I leave school in the afternoons and quite often miss the double lessons.
"I'm not really allowed to play football on any of the teams, because of health and safety, which is annoying."
Harry is a firm supporter of the Ilminster Youth Football team and rarely misses a match.
In 2008, his support for them was recognised when he was presented with an award at the Rotary Club of Ilminster's Young People of the Year awards.
He is also a staunch Yeovil Town FC fan. Last week, player-manager Terry Skiverton presented him with a signed club shirt and a copy of Hendford To Huish Park.
The gifts were a "good luck" gesture from the club for Harry's future operations.
He said: "I wasn't expecting that presentation at all and it was a bit embarrassing, but a nice surprise all the same.
"I joked about selling the gifts on eBay and making a bit of cash, but really the shirt will be going in a frame to put on my wall."
Harry's drive to persist with his treatment stepped up a gear at the end of the Ilminster Youth team's season, when the referee allowed him to play for the final ten minutes. Remembering this, he is unable to keep the smile from his face.
He said: "I got hacked a lot. Being able to play, even if only for ten minutes, gave me a taste of what I really want to do; I will get through these operations so I can play again."
Harry will soon take his final exams at school and is attending Holyrood's end-of-year ceremony on Friday.
Instead of staying on at the sixth form, he has secured a place at Somerset College of Arts and Technology in Taunton.
His mother Cindy, who used to run the Crown Inn in Ilminster, said: "I took Harry up to Taunton but he did the interview and everything else on his own, he doesn't let anything get in his way.
"I think college will help with his independence but he is very self-motivated anyway, it was his decision to have the surgery to correct his walking.
"We don't really have a timescale as to when the operations will be finished, as they depend upon the success of each other and cerebral palsy is so unpredictable. But our doctor says he is pleased with the status of Harry's leg and things look good at the moment.
"A lot of people know him in Ilminster and they know how determined he is. He's certainly not shy and is able to make friends easily.
"We get a lot of support from friends and family and I would especially like to thank the Ilminster Youth team, Yeovil Town and Holyrood School, who have gone out on a limb for Harry. Also Jeff Perks, who arranged the half-time presentation.
"This has taken its toll on the family but I think 2010 will be our year."

For more than 10 years, Special Olympics has been serving athletes by offering free health screenings and health information at local, regional and World Games. In the process, Special Olympics has become the largest global public health organization dedicated to serving people with intellectual disabilities.

An athlete gets his hearing tested at a Healthy Athletes event. Healthy Hearing is one of seven health screenings Special Olympics provides to its athletes.
By listening to athletes at events and conducting research over many years, Special Olympics leaders became aware of the lack of quality health care for people with intellectual disabilities and found it unacceptable. We found that people with intellectual disabilities have a 40 percent greater risk for health issues, and that health care professionals are not trained in or experienced with caring for people with intellectual disabilities.

Called into action, we began to explore ways to help using Special Olympics’ unique global reach and access to people with intellectual disabilities. The result was the launch of the Healthy Athletes® initiative in 1997. Today, Healthy Athletes provides health screenings free of charge at Special Olympics competitions. Offered in a welcoming, fun environment, these screenings educate athletes on healthy lifestyle choices and identify problems that may need additional follow-up.

Healthy Athletes currently offers health screenings in seven areas: Fit Feet (podiatry), FUNFitness (physical therapy), Health Promotion (better health and well-being), Healthy Hearing (audiology), MedFest (sports physical exam), Opening Eyes (vision) and Special Smiles (dentistry).

Through a global team of health-care volunteers, Healthy Athletes works to improve access and health care for Special Olympics athletes; make referrals to local health practitioners when appropriate; train health care professionals and students about the needs and care of people with intellectual disabilities; collect, analyze and dessiminate data on the health status and needs of people with intellectual disabilities; and advocate for improved health policies and programs for people with intellectual disabilities.

Healthy Athletes has a presence in more than 100 countries. Its influence is evident with more than 76,000 healthcare professionals trained, free health screenings provided to more than 700,000 athletes, and 50,000 free pairs of eyeglasses given to athletes. And it is just beginning – Healthy Athletes continues to grow each year with help from a global network of volunteers, in-kind donations and other financial support.

For more information on Healthy Athletes, contact Karl Hejlik, Senior Manager, Health and Research Communciations, at +1 (202) 824-0308 or khejlik@specialolympics.org.

YOUNG wheelchair users will soon be able to enjoy a game of football like other children.
Fareham Borough Council has successfully gained funding to launch a Powerchair Football project.

The scheme will provide specialist football training for young wheelchair users.

The Football Foundation – the UK's largest sports charity funded bADVERTISEMENTy the Premier League – has given the project £7,270.

A further £1,000 will come from the Well Being Fund and Fareham council will put in £1,000.

AFC Portchester is supporting the initiative and will be looking to form a Powerchair team as well as providing coaching at the sessions.

It is hoped the project will work with the Wheelchair Football Association and take part in Powerchair Football competitions.

Fareham councillor Connie Hockley, who is in charge of community matters, said: 'The Powerchair Football project is a brilliant scheme as it makes resources available to those who may not have previously had access to such equipment.

'This grant also enables us to qualify two coaches to provide specialist training in order to take part in Powerchair competitions.

'This will encourage participation as it promotes team sports within the community.'

The Football Foundation grant will pay for two qualified coaches, attachments for wheelchairs, four specialist footballs and hiring of training facilities.

Paul Thorogood, chief executive of the Football Foundation, said: 'I am delighted that the Football Foundation is funding Powerchair Football and I want to congratulate Fareham council, the Hampshire FA and all the partners.

'Football is our national game and the Football Foundation is dedicated to creating a level playing field to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enjoy the sport.'

The project will be launched on January 21 at Portchester Community School.

This past weekend I had a chance to watch the paralympic games for the first time in my life. It was amazing for me to watch these athletes. They moved with such grace and determination. Such dignity, confidence and respect for themselves. With and without prostheses. In wheelchair and without. All with one goal in mind, to accomplish the unaccomplishable! To prove to themselves first, and to the world second, that they could stand up before the world and shine with glory! To show the world that they were no different-
There is so much we as disable people can do. But we need the world to soften. We need the world to accept us more. we need the world to look at us the same way we look at ourselves- And, most importantly we need to be given chances and opportunities-
We need the world to not look at us with pity, disgrace, or contempt- or as though we are leopards, in a leopards colony. We need society to respect us- we need society to allow us to try and to pick ourselves up and try, try again. And, we need the gift and blessing of the world to help us climb every mountain and to help us reach every dream!

TELEVISION channel Setanta has apologised to a football fan with cerebral palsy after a call centre worker laughed at his speech problems.

Lee Kingsberry was trying to take out a new subscription to the pay-per-view sports channel after moving to a new flat.

The 23-year old says the person taking his call started laughing at him - and then hung up.

Lee said: "I wanted to watch the Man City versus Chelsea game. I know that the person who was on the line could understand what I was saying but he kept saying `What?' and `Sorry?'. We had been speaking for a few minutes and he started to laugh at me and put the phone down.

"I thought it was very inconsiderate and very unprofessional. If he had been trained professionally, he would have had a better understanding of how to speak to people. If you find it difficult to understand people you should say `I'm sorry, can you repeat that'."

The M.E.N contacted the sports station to point out Lee's appalling treatment. Managers listened to the recorded call and have now taken disciplinary action against the call handler. Station bosses have also offered Lee free subscription to the channel for a year.

A Setanta spokeswoman said: "We have dealt with the customer service agent who took Mr. Kingsberry's call and also spoken to him to apologise and offer him a 12 month free subscription.

"This is a matter that we have taken very seriously and we would not want this to happen again."

Lee uses a wheelchair and has speech difficulties because of his cerebral palsy - but he lives independently and enjoys clubbing and holidays to Ibiza.

The former pupil of Abraham Moss School in Crumpsall, Manchester, does voluntary work and has starred in a video about living with a disability. He is currently working on a TV documentary about nightlife in Manchester.

Cerebral palsy is a disorder which affects the parts of the brain that control movement - sufferers often find speaking difficult, but are not usually mentally impaired by the condition.

Lee says he is used to prejudice and offensive comments - but that his treatment on the phone was the last straw.

He said: "I'm used to people thinking that because my speech is slow that I'm not all there.

"People make judgments about me all the time but you expect a better level of service from a big company."

Sep 5 2008 by Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette

THE Beijing Paralympics kick-off tomorrow. In the last of our series looking at the lives of Teesside’s three Paralympians, Sarah Judd meets an athlete who has overcome cerebral palsy and bereavement to become one of the best in the land.


SOUTH BANK-BORN javelin ace Kenny Churchill has broken the world record five times.

With a staggering complement of 20 medals - including 14 golds - Kenny is among the best of British athletes.

But at 33, he will not rest until he has given gold medal-worthy performances in Beijing next Tuesday, before hopefully ending his career with a bang in London 2012.

Speaking of his Beijing chances, his dad, Kenneth, 68, said: “He’s going out to win it. If he doesn’t win it, it won’t be for the want of trying.”

His dad also reveals Kenny will end his career with what he hopes will be the performance of his life on home turf.

“Kenny has already said that if he can get through to London 2012, that will be his last,” he said. “He’s a big occasion athlete and thrives on a good atmosphere.”


Like many Paralympic athletes, Kenny’s career in sport began with physiotherapy to help him cope with his disability.

Kenneth said: “Kenny suffers from cerebral palsy which means the right hand side of his body doesn’t receive signals from the brain as quickly as the left and he has speech problems. He didn’t walk until he was about four or five and then he had his leg operated on and started to make progress.”

Following the operation, Kenny had ongoing physiotherapy while his dad taught him how to swim.

“He achieved some swimming medals and that developed his interest,” said Kenneth.

“Then, when he was about 10, we were at a sports event in Walker, Newcastle and a group of trainers from around the North-east were there. One of them gave Kenny a ball filled with sand and told him to throw it down the gym as far as he could.

“It hit the wall about half way up on the other side and the trainer, who was from Cumbria, just said, ‘I thought so.’

“Ever since then he’s been a thrower and has competed in the discus, shotput and javelin, but now specialises in javelin.”


Shortly after the breakthrough, Kenny joined Cleveland Harriers and trained at Clairville Stadium, Middlesbrough.

While he was a pupil at Ormesby School, his teacher Ian Smith also supported his development in athletics. Kenny went on to become a member of Durham Harriers and in 1992 won his first medal - a bronze in javelin - at the Barcelona Paralympics.

“I went to Barcelona with him and his mum, Betty,” said Kenneth.

It was an important achievement for Kenny, as it was the only medal his mum would see him win in a major competition before her death in 1994.

Kenny said: “My mum got ill in 1992 and she was in Barcelona watching me and so proud of me because I won Bronze.

“Then in 1994 she died before I went to my first world championships. I was very upset but I said at her gravestone that I would win gold in Berlin at the worlds. I couldn’t believe it when I did.”

At those World Championships, Kenny didn’t just win gold. For the first time, he broke the world record in javelin, and also brought home a gold medal in the discus.


His dad said: “Betty had always been fiercely proud of him.

“When he went to Berlin and broke the world record for the first time we were still at sixes and sevens after she had died.

“I had told him he didn’t have to go but Kenny said his mother wanted him to do it.”

From that point, Kenny’s career went from strength to strength and as his father describes it, he “won everything that was put in front of him.”

In the Paralympic Games in Atlanta 1996, Kenny set another new world record when he took a second gold in javelin and won bronze in the shot put. He went on to smash the world record for javelin three more times.

Kenneth recalls frightening the life out of patrons at his local, the Stapleton Arms in Eston, when Kenny phoned home from Berlin to say he had broken the world record for the first time.

“Kenny phoned the pub to let me know how he’d got on and said, ‘Dad, I’ve just smashed the world record.’ I gave such a yell and frightened the life out of the pub!”

Kenneth said the Stapleton Arms was a great support early in Kenny’s athletics career. They gave him his first job and raised £600 to help fund his trip to Atlanta. “His job at the pub gave him confidence and he also went on to work at Yates Wine Lodge in Middlesbrough,” said Kenneth.


Kenny is now a full-time athlete and is also a hands-on dad-of-three. He lives in Loughborough with his partner, Claire Williams, 21 and their 10-month-old daughter Gracie, and also has two children, Ewan, eight and Amber, six, from a previous relationship.

The javelin ace met Claire, 21, a discus thrower, from Carmarthen, Wales, when they were both training for Athens at Loughborough University training centre.

And Claire describes the fun-loving sports star as a champion dad. “He’s just a very fun-loving, really friendly person,” she said.

“He’s just a nice character to be around and he doesn’t let anything get to him.”

Kenny is also keen to keep in regular contact with his dad, a retired British Steel worker, who has dedicated much of his life to his career. “He worked so hard for me so I could go so far in my life,” Kenny said.

Kenny also credits his coach Paul Young, who supported him from 1992 to 2004 and current coach Mark Edwards with helping him to achieve success.

Kenny, who threw 48.09m to set a world record in Athens in 2004, said: “I am looking forward to Beijing because I’m an underdog for the first time since 2006. There’s a Chinese athlete who can throw 51 metres. But I do believe that if I do well on the day I can win gold.”

Paralympic star has sights set on fencing success in Beijing

LEE Fawcett, flies out to Beijing today to compete in the wheelchair fencing event at the Paralympic Games. In the second of a three-part series on Teesside’s Paralympic athletes, Sarah Judd discovers that fencing was not the Middlesbrough dad’s first love.




PARALYMPIC fencer Lee Fawcett has never let disability get in the way of living life to the full.

At 32, the former Brackenhoe School pupil is married with three children and has enjoyed a varied and successful sporting career.

In little more than 12 years, Lee has coached a successful young football team, been part of a multi-medal-winning wheelchair basketball team and made a switch to the new discipline of fencing.

Football-mad Lee had his eyes opened to a world of alternative sporting opportunities after an operation left him paralysed in 1992. The surgery was meant to correct a condition called scoliosis or curvature of the spine, which Lee had suffered since birth.

“The operation was to try to prevent it getting worse while I went through my growth spurt,” explained Lee.

“But during the operation, the spine swelled up and left me paralysed due to a trapped nerve. I was 15 years old and still at school. It was just a shock.”


Lee was in the old Middlesbrough General Hospital for a month, surrounded by family, including mum Anne and school friends, who helped him come to terms with the diagnosis.

“After that, they sent me to Hexham for rehabilitation,” said Lee.

“It was hard to leave my family but when I look back, it was the best thing to help me adjust to life in a wheelchair.”

Lee had always loved football and as he adapted to being back at school, it was hard to think he would never play the game again. But after facing up to life in a wheelchair, Lee found a world of sporting opportunity was just around the corner.

“I got introduced to Ian Smith from Ormesby School who showed me lots of different sports like wheelchair racing and basketball and I started training at Southlands Centre and Clairville Stadium,” said Lee. “I used to love football and thought there was nothing else. So the first thing I wanted to do was coach a team because I couldn’t play myself.”


Lee started the Grove Hill Under-12s and in five years the team won two league cups and were runners-up in the league twice. While Lee was coaching he also began playing for wheelchair basketball team Teesside Lions, based at the Southlands Centre.

There, he met friend Terry Bywater, 25. They both played for the GB Junior team and made it into Great Britain’s Paralympic team for Sydney 2000.

Lee said: “I got in as a reserve and went out to the games, although I didn’t get the chance to compete.”

Lee then suffered a health setback just before the 2004 Paralympics in Athens when he had a kidney removed.

“I suffered from constant infections and it took me a good year to get back to the level I was at just after Sydney.”


Sadly, Lee didn’t make the squad for Athens and instead trained with the English Institute of Sport in Durham.

There, he met fencing coach Laslo Jacob who tried to persuade Lee to take up the sport.

“He kept on at me for a few weeks and out of politeness I said I’d give it a try.”

Lee eventually made the decision to switch to fencing and it was a decision that paid off as, within four months, he made the Great Britain squad.

Lee now has two fencing medals to his name. The first a bronze from the Team Sabre event at the 2005 European Championships in Spain and a bronze at the World Cup in Italy in 2006 in the Individual Sabre.

And Lee is going to Beijing in a confident frame of mind.

“I think I’ve proved in this last year that, on my day, I can beat anyone in that field,” he said.

Despite his obvious drive and ambition, it is clear Lee loves nothing more than being a dad and his main priority is his family and Hemlington home.


Lee met his wife Linda when they were both students at Middlesbrough College and got chatting in the lunch hall.

“She caught my eye so I’d go and sit there with her more often,” said Lee.

When they met, Lee was in his fourth year at the college studying business and finance and Linda had just started her course in health and social care.

Linda said: “He had charm and seemed very caring with a nice personality.”

The couple were soon an item and about a year later, their first son, Liam, now 10, was born.

Lee and Linda now have another boy, four-year-old Jamie and a seven- month-old baby girl called Millie.

Lee said: “It is difficult because you are two people. You’re an athlete and then you’re the family guy. Sometimes finding the balance is hard, especially when you’re out training.”

For the moment the family are focused on watching Lee in Beijing.

Linda said: “When he went to Sydney, we were trying to see if we could see him on the sidelines.

“But with his fencing, it’s all about him and we’ll get to see him compete.”

Lee’s mum, 50, and his little sister Carly Williams, 21, both from Grove Hill, will also be rooting for him.

Lee is proud to represent Teesside as one of three Paralympic athletes from the area.

“I just hope we can bring a few medals back,” he said.

Lee Fawcett is competing in the Wheelchair Fencing event at the Beijing Paralympic Games on September 14.

BEIJING, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- After watching the "truly exceptional" Summer Olympis as spectators, China's Paralympic athletes are looking to repeat their Athens glory four years ago in Beijing.

With a biggest-ever 547-member delegation, China will start their seventh Paralympic tour on Sunday, competing in all the 20 events and 295 disciplines.

The past six Paralympics have witnessed the high-spirited and vigorous progress made by Chinese. Here are some facts about China's Paralympic history:

1984 Stoke Mandeville & New York

-- The 1984 Paralympic Games were held in Europe and North America. China made its Paralympic debut in the New York Games by sending 24 athletes who competed in athletics, swimming and table tennis.

China finished 23rd at the gold tally with two golds, 13 silvers and nine bronzes, including the country's first ever Paralympic gold won by Ping Yali.

The Games turned out as a success despite a short preparation period of four months. The organizers agreed that the future Games should be held at one place.

1988 Seoul

-- China's 43 athletes participated in athletics, swimming, table tennis and shooting. A total of 44 medals including 17 golds lifted China to the 14th place among 61 delegations on the gold standings.

The Seoul Paralympic Games took place at Olympic venues.

1992 Barcelona

-- China sent a 24-athlete delegation to the 9th Paralympics and was ranked 12th place on the gold tally with 11 golds, seven silvers and seven bronzes.

The organizing committee reduced the number of athletes by setting strict rules in order to enhance the credibility of the Games. Athletes with different disabilities were allowed to participate in the same events.

1996 Atlanta

-- Thirty-seven athletes over six sports clinched 16 gold medals, pushing China to the ninth place on the gold tally.

For the first time, athletes with an intellectual disability took part in this Games, along with athletes with spinal cord disabilities, cerebral palsy, amputations, les autres and visual impairments.

2000 Sydney

-- China sent 87 athletes to six sports in the Games, which included goalball, judo and power lifting for the first time. A total of 73 medals including 34 golds propelled China to the sixth place on the gold tally.

The Sydney Paralympics, which offered 550 gold medals, marked the first-time participation of female athletes in power lifting.

A total of 300 world and Paralympic records were set over 18 events in Sydney.

2004 Athens

-- China sent 200 athletes to take part in 11 events at the Athens Paralympics. With a historic 141 medals including 63 golds, China topped the medal standings for the first time.

Women's judo and volleyball (sitting) made their first appearance in Athens. China won the first gold medal in women's volleyball, beating the Netherlands 3-1.

At the closing ceremony, the new logo of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) was unveiled as the Paralympic flag with the three "Agitos" was raised in the stadium.

Britain's Paralympians could pick up a bumper haul of medals in Beijing next month,says John Goodbody




That golden glow British sports fans have been feeling for the past fortnight may linger for a while yet. Following the historic success of the Great Britain competitors at the Beijing Olympics, which close today, their Paralympic counterparts are hoping to top the 94 medals (including 35 golds) they won at the Athens Games in 2004.
While some of the British team are serious contenders for gold next month, others will be looking to gain invaluable experience ahead of the London 2012 Paralympics. The Great Britain team is more than 200 strong and will be competing in 18 of the 20 sports.
One Briton expected to collect a pile of medals in Beijing is David Roberts, 28, a swimmer with cerebral palsy, who holds freestyle world records in the 50m, 100m, 200m and 400m. Four years ago in Athens, the ebullient Roberts won three individual gold medals plus one in the 4 x 100m relay. His favourite event is the 50m, the flat-out sprint over one length of the pool, in which he will be going for his third successive Paralympic title.
Roberts lives in the rugby union heartland of Pontypridd, trains at Swansea and relies on his father “to get me up really early and take me swimming. If I weren’t a swimmer, I’d want to play rugby for Wales”.
Several others will be defending their titles at the Paralympics, including Lee Pearson, 34, who has six equestrian golds from Sydney and Athens. Pearson has a condition that affects his joints and therefore has limited use of his legs when riding. Instead, he controls his horse, called Gentleman, using only his hips. He runs a yard and breeding business near Leek, Staffordshire, but relies on public funding because, as he says: “Horses eat money, not grass.”
The multi-medallist swimmer Sarah Bailey, 30, from Manchester, hopes to add to her haul in her new Paralympic sport of cycling, under her new married name of Storey.
In swimming, Louise Watkin, 16, warmed up for the Paralympics by setting a European record in her disabled category for the 200m individual medley at the national championships in Sheffield. Despite having only one hand, the Devon college student’s weekly training often adds up to the equivalent of swimming the Channel.
Nathan Stephens, who lost his legs in a railway accident at the age of nine, will be taking part in his first summer Games. The 20-year-old from Cardiff will be throwing the shot, discus and javelin, having competed in the ice sledge hockey at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin.
Other debutants expected to do well next month include Libby Clegg, 18, a visually impaired sprinter based in Edinburgh, and law student Danielle Brown, 20, from North Yorkshire, who competes in the wheelchair archery event.
Judo is one sport in which visually impaired and able-bodied athletes could compete equally. Visually impaired fighters may, indeed, have an advantage through being particularly sensitive to opponents’ movement and shifts in balance prior to the launching of throws. The main difference, says Sam Ingram, who will be in the under90kg category at the Paralympics, is that fighters grip each other under the arms at the start of the bout, rather than tus-sling for a grip on the jackets.
Ingram, 23, joined a local judo club in Coventry after his elder brother Joe, who narrowly missed selection for the Paralympics, took up the sport. He stopped for three years while studying in Cornwall because of a lack of top-class facilities but returned to the sport in 2006 and finished second in the World Championships last year. Now training full-time in Edinburgh, he is working on a particular move that he and Steve Gawthorpe, the national coach for the visually impaired, call the Subduer. Opponents in Beijing had better beware.
Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, 39, Britain’s most successful Paralympian with 16 medals, 11 of them gold, will be following events in China with interest. “My goal was never to be Britain’s greatest competitor in the Paralympics,” she says. “It was to fulfil my potential. And now I will be able to watch and applaud others doing the same.”
Among the international stars poised to make an impact next month is Chantal Petitclerc, 38, the Canadian wheelchair athlete who won five gold medals and broke three world records at the 2004 Paralympics. She lost the use of her legs after an accident at the age of 13, and was introduced to swimming by a teacher in an effort to build up her strength. Later she switched to wheelchair racing.
Her 800m victory at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester made history because it was included in Canada’s medal tally for the whole Games. Previously, disabled events had been classed as demonstration sports, and therefore excluded from each country’s overall total.
“At last, it’s a sport which counts for our country,” Petitclerc said. “We have been fighting for this for years, so this medal has a special meaning.” In Beijing she is expected to compete in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.
Natalie du Toit and Oscar Pistorius will be looking to win Paralympic gold for South Africa. Du Toit, 24, had been aiming for a place in the able-bodied swimming team at the 2004 Games before she lost a leg in a motorcycle accident. She achieved her Olympics dream in China last week with a place in the 10km open-water swim, coming 16th, and will take part in a number of events at the Paralympics.
Pistorius, 21, a double amputee who runs on curved blades, won his legal campaign to be allowed to compete in the able-bodied Games but failed to make the 400m qualifying time. At the Paralympics he will be seeking to improve his times in the 100m, 200m and 400m - before resuming his quest to run in the London Olympics in 2012.
What to watch
The Beijing Paralympic Games, which take place on September 6-17, feature events such as boccia (similar to bowls), goalball and wheelchair fencing Competitors in the Paralympics are grouped in classes according to the nature of their disabilities Live television coverage will be shown on BBC1, BBC2 and British Eurosport. You can also follow the latest action at www.timesonline.co.uk/olympics
The 2012 Paralympics in London will be held on August 29-September 9

Get ready for Beijing! Watch the latest videos on ParalympicSport.TV

A LEISURE centre in Stockton is all set for a £3m wave of investment.

Stockton Council’s planning committee meet today to discuss Tees Active’s proposals for Splash, pictured above, in the town centre.

These include extending and refurbishing its Activ8 Fitness Suite and increasing capacity from a 45-station to a 75-station gym.

Two new multi-functional rooms would be built, along with new and improved changing rooms, an extended and refurbished entrance and a modern, larger cafe.

New activities would include martial arts, community events, health sessions, mini gymnastics, aerobics, spinning, wrestling, sports wall and the latest dance mat technology.

The existing through route from the car park to Church Road would also be relocated westwards.
A spokesman for Stockton Council said: “The redeveloped Splash will be an even bigger and better place to get fit and have fun in central Stockton.

“We anticipate the project will begin in November and last for about one year and we’re aiming to keep disruption to services to a minimum.” No objections have been raised. However, Sport England said it felt the application should be delayed until a Local Needs Assessment is completed.

A spokesman said: “Work on Stockton Local Needs Assessment is under way but to our knowledge has not reached a stage where it is advanced enough to help inform the kind of investment that is being proposed as part of this development.”

But Stockton Council’s planning officers have recommended the application stating: “There is a need for the expansion of the health and leisure facilities at Splash due to the imminent closure of the Tilery sports centre.”

As previously reported, Stockton Sports Centre in Tilery will close later this year.


Splash was opened in 2001 by the chairman of Sport England

Watch the Paralympics for any length of time and you will quickly see that technology plays an integral part in the event.

When athletes with disabilities compete, there is a need to provide some support in most sports.

From the need to adapt wheelchairs for use in racing, basketball, tennis and wheelchair rugby, to the Flex Feet prosthetics made famous by the "Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius of South Africa, the range of technological aids for Paralympic athletes is growing all the time.

Associate Professor Lachlan Thompson from the school of aeronautics and mechanical engineering at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology says advances like the Flex Feet - prosthetics fitted in place of amputated legs using carbon fibre and titanium for strength, light weight and extra flexibility - "very clearly are used to help people achieve quite exceptional performances".

RMIT has eight professional researchers, lecturers and professors plus 20 post-graduate students, all intent on engineering the next advance for Olympic and Paralympic sport, including motor sports for disabled people. They form part of a national and international quest to develop new sporting technology.

"It's a challenge, it's the most rewarding part of my career I've ever had," Professor Thompson says. "I've seen athletes with bicycles I've designed get on the dais. I've seen Paralympians get on the dais. When you develop technology and the athletes using it win or do a personal best, it's addictive, it's like running the race yourself."

How do scientists go about changing the way athletes compete in their sports? "You read the rules first. You say to yourself this is what we can't do [legally]. Now let's start working out how to make this person go faster."

In addition to the Flex Feet, the introduction of new wheelchair technology in time for Atlanta and Sydney - with many chairs made from titanium or aircraft aluminium - led to improved performances, but the criticism from some quarters was that the new technology was just not widely enough available.

It is true that in comparison, say, with the new Speedo swimsuit, the latest Paralympic technology is not as widely available. Almost every swimmer at the Olympics had the new suit, where many people could not afford the latest high-tech wheelchairs or carbon fibre Flex Feet, or other advances.

Professor Thompson acknowledges the ability to spread the technology is largely a matter of dollars and cents. "If it became trendy tomorrow for people to wear prosthetic feet, and everybody wanted one, they would have to be mass produced and you would get economies of scale," he says.

"We know that with this technology we can give [disabled] people a better quality of life - there's a social benefit that flows from having this technology at the Paralympics."

He believes the spread of technology is definitely improving. "The fact that people can now get Flex Feet [commercially] in Sydney or Melbourne, rather than having to go to a clinic, is great."

Professor Thompson says the age of technological improvement has not stalled since the days of 1996-2000. "It's still improving, it's going ahead in leaps and bounds,'' he says.

"In the past there was a lot of trial and error. Now there is such a database [of knowledge] built up, that we can design something for all types of athletes. [However] it gets very hard to produce technology that gives a dominant edge to a particular athlete."



Finger-strengthening gloves

One area of technological improvement is in production of gloves. "For people who have poor finger strength, they get gloves that have small carbon fibre inserts. If you need the ability to have a high drawback [of a string] in archery, for example, the gloves give added strength for the fingers."

Another area of improvement is in clothing, not just swimwear. "One of the big problems for athletes is they often below the waist don't have the sense of feeling which means they can't tell when they are getting very cold."

This means when athletes are waiting between rounds or for their turn to compete, they can get extremely cold, which reduces their ability to perform at their optimum.

Some of the new clothing allows athletes to remain warm until they are actually performing, at which point activity is sensed prompting the release of excess heat.

Flex Foot technology initially was fairly limited, suitable only for certain types of amputees. These days, however, it doesn't matter whether an athlete's leg has been amputated at the knee or the ankle, the technology is available to fit.

Professor Thompson says that while there are questions of equity in Paralympic sport, the widening of availability will not only have an effect on times and performances in Beijing, but will also improve levels of general competition.

"I think what we're going to see is that where in the past you had one athlete who had the in-built advantage from the technology [and with significant ability] now you are going to see two or three athletes in particular events with that advantage.

"The fact that someone else is pounding along half a metre behind you is going to motivate you. The prospect of being beaten is going to motivate you. You will see this reflected on the times and the performances, and it means that races and competitions will be closer [than before].

"I think there will always be occasions you will have an outstanding athlete whether it's Olympics, world championships or Paralympics. There will always be one or two people who will dominate sports, but it [their time at the top] will be for two to three years, not two or three Paralympics. People will be working harder to catch up."

Britain's hopefuls in Beijing

In 1948, Dr Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist at Stoke Mandeville hospital in Buckinghamshire, launched the forerunner of the Paralympic Games. He believed sport was vital to the recovery of war veterans injured in World War Two and organised a competition to coincide with the 1948 London Olympics.

Since the 1988 games in Seoul, Paralympics have taken place at the same venues as the Olympics. In today's competitions a classification system operates, similar to that used in boxing, where athletes are grouped according to their functional ability. There are five groups: amputee, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal cord injuries and other disabilities ("les autres"). These groupings aim to ensure fair competition between athletes with similar degrees of disability.

At the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, Britain achieved the second highest number of gold medals, 35. This year the British squad hopes to improve on this with 205 athletes competing in 18 of the 20 sports.

Drugs and Dishonesty

But as with other sporting competitions, the Paralympics are open to cheating. At the Sydney games in 2000, the Spanish basketball team won gold in a competition for athletes with intellectual disabilities. Ten of the 12-man squad were later found to have no disabilities. As a result, the International Paralympic Committee suspended the category of "athletes with an intellectual disability" - a decision that learning disability charities, such as Mencap, hope will be overturned in time for the London 2012 Paralympics.

Paralympic organisers share the Olympic movement's fight against drugs, but face additional problems such as "boosting" - a practice where athletes with spinal cord injuries attempt to stimulate their bodies by sitting on pins or ball bearings. While they will feel no pain, their nervous system reacts and increases their blood pressure. Boosting to improve performance, like doping, is illegal in competition.

One of Britain's best-known wheelchair racers, Daniel Sadler, was banned from competitions in 2002 when it was discovered that he was not disabled. He protested, saying that he had never claimed to have a disability. Although banned by the International Paralympic Committee, some disabled athletes defended Sadler as they felt he had no obvious advantage over disabled competitors.

Promoting sport

The Olympics aim to leave a legacy for the host country. The Paralympics are no different, but in this case the focus will be on promoting disability sport and improved physical access to public buildings.

In the run-up to the 2012 London Paralympics, the "Inclusive and Active" strategy has been developed to help local authorities increase opportunities for disabled people to participate in sport and physical activity.

Having signed up to the strategy, the London Borough of Southwark is hoping to build on its existing range of sports activities for disabled people, which includes specialist coaches for football, gymnastics, swimming, sailing and tennis. Southwark also plans to start work on a coaching ­programme to train disabled adults as qualified coaches.

Glyn Newberry, a sports development officer for Southwark, coaches the Millwall disabilities football team. He says: "The team has a wide range of disabilities, including spinal problems, cerebral palsy, deafness, epilepsy and behavioural issues. None prevents them playing superb football. They love coming here, whatever the weather. We hope to increase the rate of participation for people with disabilities. And, who knows, some of the young people we encourage today may be our Paralympians of the future."

Britain's Medal Hopes

● Sarah Storey, cyclist

Former Paralympic swimmer Sarah Storey will be cycling in Beijing, her fifth Paralympic Games. Her preparation involves a gruelling training regime: "Between now and Beijing I will be racing every Wednesday evening at local club 10-mile road time trial events. My training schedule also includes two or three track sessions a week, as well as two or three road rides of about 80km," says Storey. "I hope to bring home medals in my pursuit and road time trial."

● Simon Munn, wheelchair basketball player

Simon Munn, 40, will also be travelling to his fifth games as the veteran of the men's wheelchair basketball team. He says: "My career highlight was winning silver in Atlanta. Getting the bronze in Athens [in 2004] was just as good though because, although it was a step down, the standard has come along a lot since then."

● Josie Pearson, wheelchair rugby player

Wheelchair rugby is perhaps the most aggressive Paralympic event, but this has not deterred Josie Pearson, who will make history by becoming the first woman to represent Britain at the sport. Pearson remains unfazed being the lone female in the team: "To be the first female ever selected for the Paralympic GB rugby team is a real honour. I don't feel any different for being the only female in the sport because when you get on court you have a role to play and you're so focused on what you're doing, nothing else matters."

Events to watch out for

● Boccia

Boccia evolved from an ancient Greek ball game and became a Paralympic sport at the 1992 Barcelona games. Men and women compete together in teams or in individual events. The aim is to throw leather balls as close as possible to the jack, a white target ball.

● Cycling

Cycling is a relatively new discipline for disabled athletes. Blind or visually impaired cyclists compete on tandem bicycles with a sighted team-mate. Amputees and riders with other permanent disabilities use standard racing bicycles, but specific adaptations are permitted to improve safety.

● Swimming

Swimmers compete in freestyle, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, individual medley and relay using a variety of starting positions - in the water, a sitting dive or a standing start. South African swimmer Natalie Du Toit, a former Paralympic competitor, hopes to become the first amputee to gain a medal at the summer Olympics 10k open water swimming event.

● Wheelchair basketball

Teams are comprised of five players and seven substitutes. A player is not allowed to touch the playing surface with his or her feet while in possession of the ball. As in able-bodied basketball, players must bounce the ball when moving with it.

● Wheelchair rugby

Wheelchair rugby was invented in the 1970s in Canada by people who had become quadriplegics as a result of spinal cord injuries. Collisions are frequent in this explosive game, originally known as murderball, as players try to stop their opponents crossing the goal line. Wheelchair rugby is open to male or female athletes, with teams of four players and eight substitutes.

●The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games take place between 6 and 17 September. Highlights will be shown on BBC Two on weekdays between 7pm and 8pm, with live coverage on weekends between 12.50am and 4.30pm.

Pool star feels good for Beijing

JEMMA LOWE has not long passed her driving test and will still very much be wearing her sporting L-plates in Beijing.
READY FOR ACTION: Jemma Lowe with coach Graeme Anthwhistle
The 18-year-old swimmer - whose campaign begins tomorrow with the 100m butterfly heats - is in uncharted territory as one of three Teessiders making their Olympic debuts in China but is determined to rise to the occasion at the Water Cube aquatic centre.




Judging by her form this year, the Hartlepool teenager stands every chance of enhancing her reputation as one of the brightest young talents in British swimming - and possibly winning a medal.
She swam a near three-second personal best in April to win the 200m butterfly at the British Championships, which doubled as the Olympic trials, and won silver in the 100m. Then she followed up with an outstanding two World Short Course Championship bronze medals in the 100m butterfly and medley relay in Manchester.
And her personal best times, which include two British long course records of 57.78sec and 2min 6.64sec for the 100m and 200m butterfly, are among the fastest in the world this year and rank on the all-time global list.
Jemma, who will be swimming the 100m and 200m butterfly in Beijing, along with the 4x100m medley relay, said the success has strengthened her inner belief as she keeps a level head for the 29th Games.
“The times I got at the trials made me think I had a chance of getting a medal at the Worlds,” said the Borough of Stockton Swim Scheme star.
“I’d never even thought of that before. That has given me a boost for Beijing but I don’t want to get too excited.
“I’ve just got to keep focused and do my best. I’m not nervous at all, I’m more excited than anything.”
The former High Tunstall School pupil said it is the realisation of a lifelong ambition to be going to the Olympics - but stressed that she is treating it like any other event.
“It’s my first time at the Olympics and it means everything to me to be going,” she said.
“I’ve been training for 10 years, all of those lengths of the pool and all that swimming takes up a lot of my time and a lot of my social time.
“I don’t get much time for that and obviously the Olympics is the biggest thing in sport.
“It’s the highest level and why everyone does sport. People say it’s just an experience because of the London Games coming up 2012.
“But I think it’s going to be just as hard qualifying for 2012 as it was this year.
“Because there are always young, new people coming up all the time. I’m just going to go for it this time, I’m not going to make up the numbers.
“It was never really about 2008 for us, the main one had always been 2012.
“But I don’t see it as coming four years early because I’ve been working really hard.
“I’m going to go for it and try my very best and see what happens.
“It’s another competition at the end of the day. I’ve competed in so many competitions and just think of all the stuff I’ve had to do to get there and of the things I’ve been through.”
Jemma, who has overcome a back injury to qualify, is Hartlepool’s first Olympian for 40 years - swimmers Margaret Auton and Dorothy Harrison were the town’s last representatives in Mexico 1968.
“It’s crazy to be the first Olympian from Hartlepool for so long and I’m proud to be keeping up the tradition,” she said.
And, unlike in the 2006 Commonwealth Games when she swam for Wales, she will be accompanied by club coach Graeme Anthwhistle, who is part of the GB Olympic coaching set-up.
“I was really happy when I found out Graeme was going because he knows what I’m like,” she said of the mentor who has overseen her rise through the swimming ranks.
Jemma believes the 200m butterfly represents her best chance of a top placing and expects the heats to be even more intense than the finals.
She said: “I’ve always preferred the
100, probably because it’s shorter!
“But my 200 always seems to get me up there. I looked at the results from last time and most of the semi-final times were faster than the final because everyone maxes out in the semis to get into the final.”
Australian Jessicah Schipper and Poland’s Otylia Jedrzejczak are the established butterfly powerhouses and event favourites, and Jemma hopes to be at the front of a fiercely competitive chasing pack with little to choose between them.
“They will be my biggest rivals, along with a Japanese girl, and we don’t know what the Chinese will do because they aren’t anywhere in the rankings,” said the ex-English Martyrs Sixth Form student.
“There is always the one random one that comes through that no-one has heard of before as well.”
Hartlepool’s Sports Personality of the Year is currently completing her Olympic build-up in Osaka, Japan with the rest of the British Swimming squad.
Training aside and her immediate aim is to stay healthy and avoid any last-minute minor colds or viruses - and any self-inflicted injuries.
“Things are falling into place hopefully. I’m injury and niggle-free,” she said.
“Although having said that, I’m a bit accident-prone! My first nationals when I was 12 I broke my toe on a plant pot two weeks before.
“And when I went to Mexico on an altitude training camp I was running down a ramp and didn’t even fall over but my knee went and I did a medial ligament.
“So it’s no running down ramps or gardening between now and Beijing!”
Britain’s swimmers, like their cycling counterparts, excelled at this year’s World Championships in taking a record 24 medals, three of them gold.
And Jemma feels they can maintain their high standards in the Far East.
“I think and hope Britain will do better than we have ever done,” she said.

PARALYMPIAN Stephen Payton is hoping to complete a quartet of success at this year's games in Beijing.
The athlete will be running in his fourth and final Paralympics next month.

Despite this competition being his last, Mr Payton aims to equal his personal best for the 400m.


The 31-year-old, from Westoe Crown Village, South Shields, works as a sports therapy technician at the University of Teesside.

He was born with minimal cerebral palsy, the least affected category of the condition's seven levels.

Originally from Livingston, Scotland, he started running at the age of 11, and became involved in disability sports five years later after a chance meeting with Pete Wyman, a national Scottish coach.

Since 1994 he has competed for the UK, running in both the 200m and 400m.

He has clinched a 400m gold medal at Atlanta in 1996, a silver in Sydney 2000 and bronze at the last games in Athens four years ago.

His week includes 30 hours training at Gateshead International Stadium, Gypsies Green Stadium in South Shields, the University's gym and runs on South Shields beach.

Mr Payton said: "I'm looking forward to the Paralympics as a whole.

"It's a fantastic experience to be in this very unique competition.

"I feel confident that I can catch up to my personal best of 51.3 seconds for the 400m in Sydney.

"The medal I'm most proud of is the bronze in Athens, as I'd fractured my right ankle nine months before."

Before flying to Beijing, Mr Payton aims to use the Environmental Chamber in the University's Olympia Building.

This simulates extreme temperatures for athletes to prepare them for competing in different climates.

He said: "I'll also be watching the Olympics this month. I want to see what's happening and how the athletes are coping with the smog and humidity."

Mr Payton will fly to Manuca, a Portuguese enclave on mainland China, at the end of the month and then travels to Beijing on September 5 to prepare for the qualifying rounds.

He added: "I'll still be involved in sport at some level but my immediate needs are my wife Silvia and our child, whose birth is due any time.

"And I won't miss fitting my life and work around my training schedule!"

LAUGHTER and fun filled the air at this special sports day for disabled pupils at the Percy Hedley Foundation in Forest Hall.
The pupils would not be able to enjoy the activities without extra support – and extra funding to pay for it.
But thanks to a cash boost of more than £5,000, around 100 youngsters were able to enjoy a fun-filled day like any able-bodied pupils.
The sports day was held as part of the summer school activities taking place during the holidays at Percy Hedley School.
Children had the chance to try out powerchair football, which uses electric wheelchairs to play a ball game now recognised by the Football Association.
They also played wheelchair basketball and relay races with water as well as egg-and-spoon races and raft races. Fundraiser Des Bustard, from the school, said: “Events like our sports day gives so much joy to our students and their families.
“We do not receive statutory funding during the school holidays and therefore without donations we would be unable to organise a summer school for our students.
“It was fun and games with the emphasis on making it an enjoyable day with activities for everyone.”
The Percy Hedley Foundation supports children with disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to communication and learning difficulties.
Its summer school was granted an award of £5,517 from the Postcode Lottery, which has just given out more than £53,000 worth of cheques to charities in the North East.
Other groups to benefit include Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Mencap North East and Help the Aged.

A Stafford woman is celebrating after being selected for the Beijing Olympic Games.

But instead of taking to the track and field herself, sports physiotherapist Ali Glover will be providing vital hands-on support to athletes.

That’s because Ali has been appointed lead physio for the Great Britain Paralympic Team, meaning she will be ensuring the muscles and joints of some of the best disabled competitors in the world are in tip-top condition. Most of the time, Ali works at Achilles Heal physiotherapy and sports injury clinic in Millbank.

But she is also a physiotherapist with UK Athletics and has been working at Loughborough’s High Performance Centre, preparing athletes.

Ali will be joined by colleague Brett Nagata, who has been selected by Team Canada to be the physiotherapist with the Canadian wheelchair basketball team

STEPHEN MILLER is bidding for an incredible fourth consecutive gold medal in Beijing.
Paralympian Miller was born with cerebral palsy but has overcome his physical limitations to break world records and become an inspiration for other disabled athletes.

His discipline is contested by athletes with cerebral palsy who use a wheelchair. They sit and throw a wooden club — which looks like a skittle — backwards into the field of play.

Sounds easy, until you consider that Miller cannot tie his shoelaces or make a cup of tea because of his condition.

Miller, 28, won gold in the club throw in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. He is the world-record holder with throws in excess of 33 metres.

The Newcastle-born star recently published his autobiography titled ‘Paralympian’.

It was launched at St James’ Park and fittingly for the Newcastle United fanatic, the forward was written by Toon boss Kevin Keegan.

Keegan, who has known Miller for a number of years, said: “I know how hard it is to compete at the highest level. It’s no different in any sport.

“It takes dedication, courage and self-belief. Stephen has those qualities in abundance. His story is inspiring.”

Miller said: “My pals say I’m too young to write an autobiography yet! It’s taken me two years but I’m glad I did it!”

The Paralympics — which start in Beijing on September 6 — began life 60 years ago in Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist working with World War II veterans with spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, began using sport as a vital part of their rehabilitation.

These became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games and in July 1948, Guttmann established competitions to coincide with the London Olympics.

The Paralympics have since become the pinnacle of competition for disabled athletes.

Kelly Holmes, a BT ambassador, said: “The Paralympics are the most inspirational Games and involve the most inspirational people imaginable.

“Many of those competing were once able-bodied but for one reason or another have lost limbs or are in wheelchairs.

“If that happened to me I would be shattered but these are men and women who have turned that into something positive.

“They still have to train hard and be dedicated and focused.

“I really hope when the Paralympics come to London in 2012 the whole nation will get behind them.”

Oscar Pistorius, a South African Paralympic runner missing both legs from the knee down, is known as “Blade Runner” due to the shape of his prosthetic legs that he wears during competition. Pistorius’ reputation has also earned him the moniker “fastest man on no legs.” Modern technology has allowed Pistorius to bypass manual wheelchair racing events and still compete on two feet. He currently owns the double amputee world records in the 100, 200, and 400-meter sprints, which he has achieved while donning the Cheetah Flex-Foot carbon fiber transtibial artificial limbs manufactured by Ossur.

In 2007, Pistorius participated in his first international race—one for able-bodied runners. Of course, controversy followed him throughout the days approaching, during, and after the event because people questioned whether his bionic legs gave him an unfair edge over the fully-functional competitors. Also that year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) modified its rulebook to prohibit the use of “any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels, or any other element that provides a user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device.” The organization maintained that the alteration was not targeting Pistorius in particular.

Scientists who monitored some of Pistorius’ efforts at the track administered tests to determine whether he had a distinct advantage over runners without disabilities; they agreed that he did indeed. Based on these findings, IAAF declared him ineligible to take part in any event under its jurisdiction, meaning he was banned from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as well. This decision was later overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on May 16, 2008 on the grounds that the IAAF did not have enough evidence to substantiate its claim that the prostheses granted Pistorius superhuman ability.

After this ruling was reversed, Pistorius still had time to qualify for the Summer Olympics, but he failed to perform well enough to make the South African team. Even though he finished third in the 400-meter race in Lucerne, Switzerland on July 16, 2008 with a personal best time of 46.25 seconds, Pistorius fell just short of the Olympic qualifying minimum of 45.55 seconds. The South African Olympic Committee also overlooked him for the 4x400 meter relay squad because four other runners had attained better personal times. If he had been selected, Pistorius would have broken down a barrier by becoming the first leg amputee runner to ever compete in the history of the Olympics.

Now, Pistorius is setting his sights on the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He believes this is an achievable goal because sprinters typically reach the pinnacles of their careers between the ages of 26 and 29. Pistorius will be 25 by the games in London with two or three years of Olympic preparation training under his belt.

A SUMMER of sport beckons for dozens of North athletes who are competing in the Beijing Olympics and its partner competition, the Paralympics. Designed for athletes with physical, mental and sensorial disabilities, the Paralympics promises to be a medals feast for Team GB, which has 205 sporting stars competing in 18 of the 20 events. Coreena Ford takes a look at the nine athletes from the region who are heading to China.

On track for success

SUNDERLAND’S Hazel Simpson, 29, has been one of Britain’s most consistent sprinters for almost a decade, winning medals at Paralympic, World and European levels.

Hazel, of New Herrington, was 11 years old when she first discovered athletics and she won gold in the 100m sprint in Sydney 2000.

But Hazel, who has cerebral palsy, is taking a break from the sport after competing in the 100m and 200m sprint in Beijing because she’s planning on starting a family with her husband.

But the new bride aims to be back in shape for the London Paralympics in 2012.

Sprint king can’t wait

SPRINTER Stephen Payton is one of the most experienced members of Team GB’s athletics squad, and he can’t wait to get out on the track in Beijing.

Stephen, who was born in Tyneside but now lives in Uphall, West Lothian, has competed at almost every major disability championship over the last 10 years.

He trained at Gateshead while he was studying at Northumbria University but he now forms part of a trio of Scottish participants alongside young sprinters Libby Clegg and Neil Fachie.

The 31-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, will be taking part in the 200m and 400m sprint events.

At the sharp end of games

MIDDLESBROUGH’s Lee Fawcett has only been fencing for a short time, having switched from wheelchair basketball in 2005 . . . yet he is now the sole athlete representing his country in the sport this summer, in the individual sabre event.

Lee, 32, who is paralysed, already has two medals to his name. He won a bronze medal in the Team Sabre event at the European Championships in Spain in 2005 and this was followed by another Bronze at the World Cup in Italy in 2006.

Aiming for top

JAVELIN ace Kenny Churchill, 38, is a veteran of the Paralympics having taken part in the athletic event in Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens.

And the play worker, of Whinney Banks, Middlesbrough, will be journeying to China looking to defend the gold medals he won in the last three paralympics.

The Durham City Harriers member, who has celebral palsy, hopes he’ll be in the form of his life for Beijing, just as he was in Athens when he set a new world record with a throw of 48.09m.

Ace's hope

YORK table-tennis player Cathy Mitton was one of the first athletes to be named in the GB team for the Paralympic Games, and it was against all odds.

Cathy, 47, is one of 10 table-tennis players journeying to China a month after the Olympic Games’ razzmatazz takes place — the third time she has taken part in the Paralympics. It has been a real challenge for Cathy just to take up the sport.

Cathy, of Rufforth, has used a wheelchair since she was a youngster, having contracted polio at the age of two. She now excels at table tennis, but it took her years just to find a suitable venue which allowed wheelchair access, allowing her to play her chosen sport.

She confessed: “When I am competing I am actually a bag of nerves . . . I feel sick inside.”

Bid for net gains

AT only 25, Terry Bywater of Redcar, Teesside, is still one of the youngest members of the GB men’s wheelchair basketball team, yet he is also one of the most established squad members.

Terry was just 17 when he made his Paralympic debut in Sydney, when the team agonisingly missed out on a medal and finished fourth, when they were beaten by Australia 64-52 in the semi-final.

He returned to the squad in 2004 for Athens when the team clinched bronze in the dying minutes of a tough play-off with the USA and is expected to be a key player next week, having been top scorer for the team at the European Under-23 Championships in 2002 and 2004.

Setting sail for glory

SUNDERLAND sailor John Robertson, 36, is over the moon at being selected to compete as part of the three-person keelboat, the Sonar, along with Wales’s Stephen Thomas and Essex’s Hannah Stodel.

Robertson skippered this crew to sixth place in the last Paralympics, so this time the trio are hoping to go further.

He said: “It’s a pretty special feeling to get selected for the Games, especially for the second time.

“From our experiences in Athens, we’ve learnt how special the Paralympics is.

“We’ll go out there with the aim of doing as well as we can, but as is the way with sailing, it’s in the lap of the gods to some extent. We’ll give it Billy Beans and hope that it’s good enough to win us a medal at the end of the day.”

Throwing for gold

STEPHEN MILLER is a hot favourite for gold in the discus . . . but he says he’ll have to break his own world record to retain the club title for a fourth time.

The 28-year-old, of Cramlington, Northumberland, who has travelled to the training base in Macau with his parents, says the competition in Beijing will be stronger than ever.

Stephen works in the IT department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead and is secretary of Newcastle United Disabled Supporters Association.

He said: “Every Paralympics is different, and Beijing will definitely have a different feel from the other three I have competed in.

“I don’t think it will be as bad as a lot of people are suggesting, and I’m looking forward to getting out there.

“You have to adapt to everything . . . the culture, the food, the people and the places.

“It’s going to be very, very humid out there, and there will be a lot of smog as well, but the conditions will be the same for everyone.”

Fran going for new haul

CHAMPION swimmer Fran Williamson, 23, was absolutely terrified of the water when she was a child, according to her proud dad Duncan, but she’s certainly overcome her fears now.

Fran, who originally comes from Sunderland but now lives in Cambridge, helped Great Britain’s swim team to a tally of 52 medals at the Athens Paralympics — more than any other nation — and that was in her debut.

Fran, who has cerebral palsy, hopes she’ll be adding a second bagful of medals to her collection, having won three silvers and one bronze in Greece.

By Elizabeth Hudson

As the Beijing Paralympics fast approaches, all of the Great Britain team are putting the final touches to their preparations and is the same story for Stephen Miller, who will be chasing yet another gold medal in the club throw.

The 28-year-old will be one of only two competitors on the GB team (javelin thrower Kenny Churchill is the other) who will be bidding for a fourth consecutive individual gold in the same event in Beijing.




















Miller's event is contested by athletes with cerebral palsy who use a wheelchair. They sit and throw a wooden club (which looks like a skittle, but weighs almost 400g) backwards into the field of play.

The 28-year-old from Newcastle was born with a form of cerebral palsy which results in a lot of involuntary movement and his F32 category is the most severe cerebral palsy class at the Paralympics.

But he has enjoyed much success in the sport, making his Paralympic debut in 1996 in Atlanta, where he was the youngest member of the GB track and field team, and took gold.

He then went on to retain his title in Sydney and Athens and is the European and world champion and the world record holder.

He is also a noted discus thrower and will compete in both events in Beijing.

Away from the field, Miller has also been working on another major project and after two years of hard work, his autobiography is about to be released.

Entitled Paralympian: My Autobiography, it was launched at Newcastle's St James's Park on Thursday.

Fittingly for Miller, who is a Newcastle United fanatic, the forward to the book has been written by manager Kevin Keegan, who first met him many years ago and has followed his career closely ever since.

Keegan writes: "I know how hard it is to compete at the highest level, and it's no different in any sport.

"It takes dedication, courage and self-belief, and Stephen has those qualities in abundance.

"His story is truly unique and inspiring, and at his young age I'm sure he isn't done yet."

In the book, Miller describes how important it is for him to keep focused on the positives in his life.

"Everyone has things he or she can and can't do.

"When it boils down to it, the things I can't do are pretty boring and mundane - making a cup of tea, tying my shoelaces, cooking a meal, driving a car.

"Admittedly, it can get me down when I realise I probably won't ever be able to do a lot of these things, but not for long.

"Here's why: things could be worse.

"Things can always be worse. Life is life, a gift, a miracle. There will always be someone in the world worse off than you, and that's a good thought to keep in the back of your mind."

Now, as he works towards Beijing, Miller believes that these Games will be his toughest ever, but he insists he will be ready for the challenge.

After recovering from a hip injury, he recently threw a personal best at the Cerebral Palsy National Championships in Nottingham, beating his previous world record mark of 34.93m with a new best of 35.98.

Unfortunately the throw could not be ratified as a world record because it was not an international tournament but it gives him a boost as he gets set to take on his rivals in China.

And success in Beijing will mean another chapter can be added to his life story.

By Tony Garrett

The Paralympic movement has come a long way between the first International Games at Stoke Mandeville, which began 60 years ago today, and the Paralympic Games, which start in Beijing on 6 September.

Developments are constantly being made on and off the playing fields and in the way the events are covered by the media.

Back in 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist who was working with World War II veterans with spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, began using sport as a vital part of the rehabilitation programmes of his patients. These became known as the Stoke Mandeville Games.

A milestone event took place in July 1948, when Guttmann established a competition for patients with spinal injuries to coincide with the London Olympic Games. Sixteen paralysed British ex-servicemen and women took part in an archery competition.

Since then the "Parallel Olympics" have become the pinnacle of international competition for disabled athletes. The name derives from the Greek "para" ("beside" or "alongside") and refers to a competition held in parallel with the Olympic Games - no relation with paralysis or paraplegia was intended.

The first official Paralympics were held in Rome in 1960 and it has grown in strength since then.

At the end of August, the "Test Event" (as the Olympics are known in Paralympic circles) finishes and we can look ahead to the 13th Paralympics.

People often ask why the Paralympics are not scheduled before the Olympics.


















In Athens four years ago and now in Beijing we have seen the answer - the host organisers clearly would have struggled for different reasons to ensure that the Paralympics would be ready in time.

I have been involved with disability sport and the Paralympic movement for many years and each Games creates a tremendous buzz and excitement in the build-up.

My first involvement came many years ago as an international wheelchair table tennis player.

Although ranked in the top three in the country for quite a few years and being able to compete at World and European Championships, selection for GB to participate in the Paralympics just eluded me.

The first time BBC Sport covered the Paralympics in depth was in 1980 when, along with producer Jeff Goddard and the legendary Welsh rugby player and broadcaster Cliff Morgan, I covered the Games in Arnhem.

After that it was time to concentrate on my business career within the BBC working across Drama, Sport, Finance HQ, Documentaries and back to Sport and it was not until Sydney in 2000 when I resumed Paralympic duties.

Although I was not in Sydney, with the time difference, there was a critical role to play in London to ensure that across radio and online our listeners were kept in touch with all the news and action from a tremendous Games for Team GB.

Athens proved to be a successful Paralympics, both in terms of GB medals and the BBC coverage. BBC Sport was later recognised with an award from the International Paralympic Committee as the best international broadcaster from the Games.

That led to me going out to China on behalf of the department to receive the award and experiencing for the first time the culture of China.

British Paralympic legend Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson and I spent some time wheeling around the streets of Beijing, and then there weren't many disabled people visible.

It will be interesting to see whether the attitudes of the Chinese people have changed in the past few years and I honestly hope that the real legacy of the Paralympics will see much better access and acceptance of disabled people throughout China.

One of the first benefits of the Games coming to China is improved access to two of the best known historic monuments.

Tourists with a disability from all over the world will now have much better access to Beijing's most famous Forbidden City and parts of the Great Wall following extensive renovations.

As we get nearer to the Games media interest has heightened and a real multimedia approach is driving us forward.

The catalyst this year was back in May with the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester, of which BBC Sport transmitted two hours of live coverage.

There has been real interest across all outlets with international stories surrounding South Africans Oscar Pistorius and Natalie Du Toit bringing Paralympic sport to the forefront of the sporting news.

With some prompting, programmes across the BBC are ensuring that they are covering both Olympic and Paralympic stories in unison.

I am sure the Beijing Paralympics will be a successful but very challenging Games for broadcasters, but it is one that we are looking forward to.

Hear first hand from North East Paralympian Stephen Miller and Nike dance diva Vicki Igbokwe how we can address inequalities and ensure sport is for all. Highlights from the Regional Equality in Sport Conference - the Time is Now

Anyone who's seen Murderball knows how serious wheelchair athletics can be, but it's always struck me as more than a little inefficient that the athletes need to use their hands to both play ball and steer their wheelchairs. Short of giving them extra arms, is there anything that can be done about this? A group of designers thinks so, creating this Balance Sport Wheelchair that turns according to which way the person leans, sort of like a Segway. Users presumably still have to push to get their speed up, but the steering's all done by shifting weight. And to stop, just lean back.

Ricky Biddle, Eric Larson and Ben Shao conceived the design, which can be customized to its owner, since paraplegics vary greatly in their mobility. Someone with very limited movement might adjust the brake and turning response so they're activated by even slight leans, while those with more mobility would probably prefer a greater range. Looks like a great idea to us, but if there are any disabled readers out there, we'd love to know your thoughts.

STILL only 28, disabled athlete Stephen Miller has crammed a lifetime into the last three decades.

Born with cerebral palsy, he has overcome prejudices, physical limitations and the death of a close friend to become a record-breaking gold medallist and an inspiration for hundreds of disabled athletes.

“My friends say I’m way too young to have an autobiography yet,” laughs Stephen, as he sits on the sofa at the home he shares with his parents Ros and John.

“It’s been really hard work and it’s taken me two years but I’m glad I did it.”

The front room in the semi-detached house in Cramlington is a showcase of Stephen’s triumphant sports career.

There are two glass cabinets crammed with medals, including his three gold Paralympic gongs, the walls are adorned with signed photographs of him meeting sporting stars and a trophy he received for North East Sports Personality of the Year sits proudly on the windowsill.

Above Stephen’s head hangs a striking image of the athlete, overcome with emotion and wiping away a tear, after winning a gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Athens.

These are just a handful of the accolades he has received over the years.

“This is another one of his world records,” says his mum as she holds aloft a silver plate inscribed with his name.

When asked how many he has, she smiles, “We’ve lost count.”

His achievements are outstanding.

He has won gold medals for throwing the club at the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Paralympic games and is the current world, Paralympic, European and National record holder for the sport.

A quick tally of his honours show he has 15 international medals for club and six for discus while nationally he has notched up 19 gold medals and one silver for both club and discus.

“I have achieved so much it is hard to pick out one as my greatest achievement,” says Stephen, who works as a web developer for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead.

“Each one in itself is a massive achievement for me. Personally, getting working and getting a job is one of the biggest achievements to me.”

Stephen was born on May 27 1980 at Princess Mary maternity hospital in Newcastle.

It was a difficult birth. He was born in the breech position and starved of oxygen during the delivery.

His parents were devastated when he was diagnosed with athetoid cerebral palsy, a form that results in involuntary movement, but instead of suing for compensation they decided to concentrate their efforts on giving their son the best life possible.

They treated Stephen no differently from his younger brother Jonathan, who came along six years later.

He says: “My parents brought me up as a normal child.

“They never mollycoddled me and I was always going out and playing in the street with the other kids.

“With my disability I have learned to get around things.”

There have been many times over the years that Stephen has wondered what his life would have been like if he didn’t have cerebral palsy.

But he tries not to dwell on it and instead prefers to exude a positive outlook .

“It is something that does go through my mind especially in your teenage years,” he says. “It becomes more obvious you are not the same as your friends.”

One of the things the athlete is most passionate about is promoting disability sport in the region and fighting prejudices that many disabled people face.

He trained as a coach so he could help young people achieve their goals, just like he did. “One of the hardest things in my life has been dealing with other people’s perceptions,” says the ardent United supporter.

“It’s getting better though and disability is a lot more accepted in society.”

One of Stephen’s role models since he started doing sport at the age of 11 was a man called Norman Bates, himself a medal-winning Paralympian, who inspired the young boy to excel in sport.

Sadly, the man he admired died in late 2002 and his death hit Stephen hard.

“He was there for me from the start. He was an ex-Paralympic athlete and someone I looked up to.”

Stephen has dedicated his autobiography to Norman, as well as his family, who have been a tremendous support to him throughout his career.

Kevin Keegan, who the Paralympian first met when he was three, has written a glowing foreword to the book.

Photographs included among the pages is a who’s who of the sporting world.

As well as the United manager Stephen has met Alan Shearer, John Burridge, Bobby Robson, Kelly Holmes, Boris Becker and Sebastian Coe, to name a few.

So, not even into his 30s and with so much behind him, what else does he want to do? “I would like to be an ambassador for disability sport,” he says.

:: Paralympian: My Autobiography by Stephen Miller, is published by Tonto Books on July 28, priced £9.99, and available from all good bookshops including Amazon, Borders, Waterstones, Fenwick and The Back Page.

The book will be officially launched on Thursday July 24 at Club 206, St James’s Park, at 7.30pm. Readers are invited to attend the free event.

See tomorrow’s Chronicle for extracts from the book.

£3.5m Tees Barrage watersports plan a step closer

A MULTI-million-pound upgrade of the Tees Barrage white water course to make it one of the best in the world has moved a step closer.

The Stockton Middlesbrough Initiative is calling on people to give their views on initial designs for the £3.5m project ready for a planning application to be submitted.

The improvements involve redesigning the main course, building a second shorter course and installing four massive Archimedes Screws to create guaranteed conditions for canoeists, rafters and other white water sports activities.

The 12m long by 3m diameter environmentally-friendly screws will also use excess river water to generate electricity, making the course sustainable in energy terms.

Fred Hartley, senior projects manager from British Waterways, responsible for the upgrade, said: “This is not only a fascinating and innovative piece of engineering it will also result in a truly world class facility for the Tees Valley.”

British Waterways are seeking comments and support from local people and organisations on the designs. Discussions are also underway with current course users, organisations and businesses along the river to ensure details of the scheme meet everyone's aspirations.

Councillor Bob Cook, Stockton Council's Cabinet member for regeneration and transport, said: “The River Tees brings Stockton and Middlesbrough together. It already has a range of high quality sports and recreational facilities. The new white water course will be a real asset for the region and indeed be of national importance.”

As well as being used as a training camp for Olympic competitors, an upgrade would enable the site to bring some of the biggest watersports events to the Tees both before and after London’s 2012 Games.

Middlesbrough Deputy Mayor, Councillor Bob Kerr said: “These upgrades will make the white water course the best of its kind in the UK. Facilities at the barrage are already an enormous asset to both Stockton and Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley, and will continue to be a major attraction for visitors from around the country and further afield.”

Major funding bids have been made to regional development agency One NorthEast and Sport England for nearly £3m. Together with contributions from British Waterways and the two local authorities, the £3.5m upgrade will be able to proceed.

Subject to the bids being approved the scheme should be able to start in November and finish by summer 2009.

An exhibition of the designs will be held on Friday from 11am-5pm at the Four Seasons, Tees Barrage, Stockton.