london disabiilty athletics grand prix

05 August 2011

Following a lengthy period on the sidelines after January’s IPC Athletics World Championships, global 100m finalist Jonnie Peacock (coach: Hayley Ginn) continues his comeback as he lines up in the T44 Ambulatory 100m B race in Saturday’s UKA’s London Disability Athletics Grand Prix (6 August, 09:30-11:15), before racing in the live televised Aviva London Grand Prix T42-44 200m, both at Crystal Palace (London).

Peacock returned to competitive action in style when clocking lifetime best marks in the T44 100m (11.47) and 200m (24.01) at the Stoke Mandeville Disability Athletics Challenge last weekend (30/31 July), but the 18-year-old is now looking forward to his double sprint outing in two separate, but high quality events tomorrow.

“This will only be my second 200m and obviously I’ve still got a lot to learn,” he says, “but I’m looking forward to it. Last week I had a bad start and my finish was atrocious, but if conditions are better than at Stoke Mandeville (where the wind was -3.0m/s), I’m hoping that Ian Jones (T44 Beijing Paralympic Games medallist) can pull me round to a fast time.”

“I think last weekend’s time would have translated as a lot quicker without the wind, maybe 23.5, so realistically I’m looking to get as close as possible to 23 seconds by the end of this season.”

He still prefers the 100m however, and already his credentials are impressive: he competed seriously for the first time in 2009 after coming through a Talent Introduction Programme followed by the Aviva Parallel Success initiative; he won his first international vest when securing silver at the IWAS World Junior Championships in 2010; he went on to make his Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland senior team debut at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships and finished sixth in the final, and he’s now ranked third in the world this year courtesy of his recent 11.47.

“I do prefer the 100m and things are going really well,” he admits. “Obviously Lee Valley (a low key meet on 20 July where he ran 11.59, a PB at the time) was more of a test run, but I didn’t expect to go so quickly after such a long period off. I suppose my injury was a blessing in disguise because the time out gave me a chance to sort out all the other problems and biomechanical issues I had, and I didn’t rush back until we were confident I was ready.

“Also, my technique has progressed a lot in the last six to nine months which has played a part. It’s probably changed more in that time than in the last two years and a lot of that is down to the additional visual input and support I’ve had from working out of Lee Valley, and also watching guys like Dwain Chambers and other experienced sprinters train down there.

“I’ve still got a lot of changes to make; at the moment I spend around six hours travelling to get to and from Lee Valley but I’m hoping to move closer so that I’m totally focused on my training and spend less time on the road. I haven’t really started to look at my diet and nutrition but that’s another thing we’re going to look at, and I’d like to think I could run under 11.4 by the end of this year.”

Just over one year out from the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Peacock will be joined in Saturday morning’s London Disability Athletics Grand Prix by a host of world class athletes including Aviva GB & NI World Champions T37 400m champion Bethy Woodward (coach: Joan Dodoo); double World Champion and T34 World Record holder Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson) who clocked PB times over 400m (58.59) and 800m (2:03.34) at the Stoke Mandeville meeting last weekend; T42 World 200m Champion Richard Whitehead (coach: Liz Yelling) who raced over 100m for the first time in Stoke Mandeville in 13.58; T12 World 100m Champion Libby Clegg (coach: Keith Antoine) and Rob Ellchuk-coached duo and multiple World Championships medallists Katrina Hart - gold medallist in the T37 200m and bronze medallist in the 100m - and Paul Blake, T36 400m champion and double silver medallist in the 800m and 1500m.

On the in field, IPC World Championships F40 javelin bronze medallist Kyron Duke (coach: Anthony Hughes) will be looking to continue the impressive run of form which saw him record recent career best distances in the shot putt (9.79m) and javelin (33.08m), also at Stoke Mandeville.

He competes in the Ambulatory javelin tomorrow which includes his equally in-form Aviva GB & NI team mate Scott Moorhouse (coach: Dan Pfaff), the World number two in the F42 category with a best of 47.33m.

Ticketholders for the second day of the Aviva London Grand Prix (5-6 August) are encouraged to arrive early for the London Disability Athletics Grand Prix, which will kick off an action packed day of athletics at Crystal Palace, doors open at 09:00. 

A timetable is available on the UKA website (select the 'London' tab) and a full report will be published following the event at www.uka.org.uk.