IWAS World Junior Championships 2005

The first IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation) World Junior Championships was held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, the home of Paralympics in July 2005. This was great chance for our up and coming athletes to gain experience at a major competition.

IWAS decided to combine 100m/200m and 400m and 800m. They worked on a points system. So an athlete in their age group would become a sprint world champion and a middle distance champion. The competition opened with a parade of the countries involved in the championships.

The games were then opened by the Chairman of Aylesbury Vale District Council. First up was Mickey Bushell in the 100m, and what a start it was for GB. He won the 100m in a time of 16.89 sec a personal best beating the disability class above T54 with Douglas Stone in the 100m came 5th in a time of 16.89 sec. The next race was a chance to have a 1st and 2nd for GB, where Brian Alldis and Dominic Cheshire went head to head. But their was one problem they had to beat Marcel Hug, Switzerland who is the number junior in the world and keeping up with best in the world at senior level.

Dominic had a great start and pulled away from Brian and Marcel, then Marcel took control of the race and was first over the line, behind him the race was being battled out between Brian and Dom for second and third, Brian picked up in the last 40m to come and take 2 2nd in time of 15.78 sec. Dominic finished 3rd and achieved a personal best in time 16.23 sec. Sarah Loughran had a good start as she got away from her Swiss rival to eventually win the 100m in a time 18.62 sec another personal best. At 12:30 everyone made their way to the café to wait for the 2012 announcement. Thankfully it was the decision we all dreamed of… London hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012. Everyone cheered - it was great to see so many happy faces.

It was back to the serious stuff on the track 400m was next up on the programme, Kevin Ward competing in his first major event since taking the sport up 2 years ago. On very windy day, Kevin found it tough on the back straight; he came home in 7th in time of 1.11.37 min. Brian came 2nd to Marcel, Douglas 6th, Dominic 5th , and Mickey and Sarah came 4th in the 400m. Times were down a little due to the strong wind. Everyone finished for the day apart from Brian who had a 1500m to come. The race started well for Brian taking on Marcel from the gun, he lead for the first 600m, but then the time came when Marcel came out and overtook to up the pace and take the lead Brian tried to respond but the quality of Marcel, he found it hard to keep in his draft. With plenty of time head for Brian I am sure he will soon be up there with Marcel and others.

On Thursday we woke up hoping the weather had improved but how wrong was we! The 200m was the first event of the day, again Mickey had an early start, he had a great start but a gust of wind on the bend help his opposition go past, Mickey closed the gap down the home straight but ran out distance to take them he finished 3rd with a time of 31.95 sec. This was enough to earn Mickey the under 16's world Sprints championship. Douglas in the 200m had a fantastic bend to set himself up for a 2nd personal best of the week he finished the race in 6th position. They were some very talented athletes in this age group. Anderson from Sweden became world Sprint Junior champion for the under 19's. Brian and Dominic again came face to face in the 200m. Dominic knew he had beat John Glynn and David Griffiths of Ireland to guarantee bronze for the sprints under 21's. He beat John Glynn in very close contest it went right down to the line, but unfortunately he could not get past David to take bronze. Dom 4th overall in the Sprints division. Brian came 2nd again to Marcel to take silver in the same division.

Sarah had to come first to guarantee gold. She had a blistering start coming off the bend ahead of Sandra of Switzerland, Sandra pulled back Sarah to be neck and neck with 20m to go, but Sarah again pulled away and hung on to take the females under 21's sprints title. Kevin lined up for 800m his second race of the week, after a good first lap 200m to go Kevin kicked tried hard and closed the gap on 6th place, unfortunately he never quite caught him. With the great effort he showed Kevin achieved a personal best time of 2 min's 21 seconds. Kevin finished 7th overall for the middle distance division. Douglas was involved in the best 800m of the day where all 8 athletes finished inside 2 sec's of each other. After the break on the back straight Douglas caught up the pack, and slotted in 3rd position this was pattern for the most of the race, with 150m to go the front 2 kicked and pulled away. 3 athletes also kicked behind and came past but he held on to finish 6th . Also achieved another PB of 2min's 3secs.

Brian and Dominic had to face the formidable Marcel Hug again in the 800m. Brian finished 2nd to cap off a great week for himself. Dominic only managed to complete 50m after trouble with his straps on his chair. Personally would I like to congratulate the whole Great Britain team in making the competition a great success for the country. I endeavour to make the team bigger for next year's event. Great Britain Team: Sarah Loughran (Teesside), Brian Alldis (Bury St Edmonds), Douglas Stone (London), Dominic Cheshire (Manchester), Mickey Bushell, (Telford), Kevin Ward (Wolverhampton) and Coach Paul Hunt.