20 June 2010 

Virgin Mini London Marathon winner Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson) reduced her own T34 400m World Record at yesterday’s British Wheelchair Athletics Association (BWAA) International at Stoke Mandeville (Saturday 19 June), clocking 1:04.27 for victory.

It was yet another impressive performance from the 17-year-old Halifax athlete who first reduced Deborah Brennan’s previous world mark of 1:07.68 – set back in 2002 – by over two seconds at the UKA Disability Athletics Challenge meeting in Knowsley (Liverpool) in May.

“I really wanted to go out there and win it,” said Cockroft, who has also won the British Wheelchair Racing Association 800m title, in addition to achieving runners-up spots in the BWRA 400m and the BUPA Great Manchester 10k, this year to date.

“It was a very strong international line up and I’m really pleased to won. Conditions weren’t great because it was really windy, but with it being a 400m, we had a tail wind as well as a head wind.

“I’m now hoping to go even quicker,” she continued. “Training has been going really and prior to my race Peter reinforced some of the key things we’d been working on. We went through the starts which is something I’ve been struggling with and getting into a good racing position – it worked, so I think we’ll stick with it now.”