With the last minute withdrawer of World Deaf Hammer record holder Joanne Davison, Great Britain team was left with 9 athletes to travel to Sofia, Bulgaria for the 7th European Athletics Championships of the Deaf from 7-14th July.

The Championships started with John Ruddy running in the 100m semi final.  Ruddy was making his international debut, so naturally he was nervous, but performed to the best of his abilities.  Drawn next to the more experienced Rafal Sliwka of Poland, Ruddy fought all the way through the finishing line, only to miss out on a place in the final by a fraction of a second.  It was exactly the same situation for Nelson Bolumbu in the 3rd Semi Finals.  With only the first 2 finishers plus the fastest 2 losers qualifying for the final, they both agonisingly finished 4th.     

Deaflympics 800m Champion and World Junior Record Holder Lauren Peffers and defending champion Candy Hawkins were our first ladies to compete in the 1,500m Final.  Unfortunately, their race was at the peak of the scorching heat.  Half way through the 1500m, Hawkins found the heat too much to handle and dropped out.  Peffers bravely continued to keep up with the leader Nelli Erofeeva, the Russian Deaflympics 1500m champion, only to collapse with less than 150m away from a possible Gold or Silver medal, with her nearest 3rd athlete about 80m behind them. 

“I felt really confident going into the race. I was determined to improve from my 2004 Silver medal at the last European championship, but coming from the rain and almost freezing temperature in Scotland to race in near 40 degree temperature was a major drawback.  Suddenly, I felt dehydrated, very hot and all I remembered was my legs going at 110m to go.  I am really disappointed about this” Says Peffers.

With both our gold medal favourites collapsing, it was left to Beth Sewell to cheer up the team. Sewell did not disappoint. Under pressure from the same very high and dry temperature, she proved why she was ranked 2nd in Europe in the Hammer.  Her performance was so consistence that she would have swept up the medal boards if more than 1 medal could be given for final ranking positions. Sewell smashed her PB and broke the Championships Hammer record in claiming the Gold medal with a throw of 43.33m which was a massive 4m ahead of second placed Rymma Flimoshkna of Ukraine (39.63m). 

“Having been out of international competitions for the last 4 years partyly due to lack of funding, I was determined to do well.  In the lead up to the Europeans, I had problems with my lower back which meant I couldn’t do weight training or throw a 4kg Hammer properly for some weeks before the Championships.  However I felt confident because with the help of the physiotherapist and a good coach Lorraine Shaw, I was still throwing over 41m consistently and  I knew that if I performed to the best of my abilities, it would be difficult for any deaf girl in Europe to beat me.  I am really excited about this win and hope that it will encourage more deaf youngsters to take up the Hammer and encourage prospective sponsorship for deaf athletes” comments Sewell.