Thursday 27 August 2009

World Athletics Championships 2009

The World Athletics Championships were held in Berlin for 9 days this month. The championships featured the best athletes from across 5 continents and after a spectacular Olympics last year I was glued to the TV for this event.

Britain did exceptionally well exceeding UK Athletics expectations of 5 medals and 14 top 8 finishes. We actually managed 6 medals and 20 top 8 finishes, which is great and proves that the athletics squad is getting stronger.

Our first gold medal came from the heptathlete Jessica Ennis who dominated 2 days of competition. I was then pleased to see Philips Idowu hop, skip and jump his way to gold in the triple jump with a new PB. Jenny Meadows flew around the track twice to collect a deserved bronze in the 800m, but the winner South Africa’s Caster Semenya is currently having gender tests to verify if she is eligible to run as a female! Is she a she or a he! The final individual medal came from Lisa Debrisky who has a higher voice than I do! She grabbed a silver in the 1500m and was just a 100th of a second from snatching the gold. The female relay teams were disappointing, but the men made up for it by collecting a bronze in the 4x 100m and silver in the 4x 400m.

Away from the British athletes Usain Bolt was the man of the games breaking the 100m and 200m world records yet again! He powered through both events and I still can’t get over 9.54secs for 100m! I need to get him to be my guide runner! Jamaica also picked up the gold medal in both 4x 100m relays showing they are one speedy nation!

It was a thrilling games and I look forward to the European Championships and Common Wealth Games next year. The World Championships for disabled athletes isn’t until 2011 and is being held in New Zeeland. Qualification for the games starts on September 1st this year, but apparently UK Athletics don’t have the standards yet and have advised me to work from last year’s Paralympics ones, which I will do. It would be amazing if I made it there, but my main goal is still 2012.

Sunday 9 August 2009

A Productive Comp

My computer conked out on Tuesday, but thankfully it’s been fixed now and I’m back online!

On Wednesday I had another athletics competition. It was the Charnwood Open again, so only at Loughborough. I’m pleased to report that I got not one, but two PBs! Woo hoo!

I had to wait until heat 14 for my 100m, as they were doing quickest to slowest. There were only 16 heats so shows how slow I am compared to the mainstream athletes. I didn’t get the best start on my 100m, but Courtney did a good job of pulling me along, as I felt I really had to push myself to keep up. I ran it in 15.1secs, which takes 2 tenths off my PB. Still aiming for that all-important 14.8secs for the B Standard for last year’s Paralympics. Nearly there now!

The organisers forgot to allocate me two lanes for my 200m, which meant I had to go in the heat before mine and therefore a quicker one. I was surprised that I finished 5th and not last! I had to wait quite a while for my time and when it came out as 32.4secs I was shocked! I only smashed my previous PB by 1.2secs!

It was a really good night and after both races I wasn’t even sure I ran that well. I went to sleep with a great big grin on my face!

I think my next competition will be on September 19th, but I’m not sure when the Charnwood Championships are. If I don’t get the Paralympic time at either competition I intend to run at the Watford Open on September 24th and that will be my very last event of the summer season.