27 January 2011

Beijing Paralympic Games silver medallist Ben Rushgrove (coach: Rob Ellchuk) won his second medal of the IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand (21-30 January) this morning, coming through to take bronze in the final stages of the men’s T36 200m.

“I went out for gold and I didn’t get anywhere near gold, but the best man won on the day,” he admitted after finishing third in 25.27 (+3.5m/s).

“I knew that Roman (T36 100m bronze medallist Roman Pavlyk) would get off to a good start and he ran the bend really hard. My starts haven’t been sharp this year and I knew that I’d have it all to do going into the home straight. I ended up racing for silver and even that didn’t quite work out.

“My legs started to fatigue and I tightened up too much,” he continued. “I hadn’t done the training workload I needed to due to various niggles over the year and there was a definite lack of volume, but we did what we could in the time we had, and it’s the work behind the scenes and the tweaks my coach has made to my training that have helped me achieve what I have done out here.”

“The race went as expected but that doesn’t stop me being annoyed or disappointed, I just hope these guys turn up at some of our events in the UK over the summer so we can race a few times before London, that’s what we all need.”

Behind champion Pavlyk (24.47), China’s World Record holder and Paralympic champion So Wa Wai finished in the silver medal position in 24.71 while Aviva GN & NI’s Graeme Ballard (coach: Steve Thomas), who finished fifth in the 100m, matched that performance in fifth place with a time of 25.42.

In the only qualification event of the morning to involve a British athlete, T36 1500m silver medallist Paul Blake (coach: Rob Ellchuk) was once again impressive when winning his 800m heat in a new Championship Best performance of 2:16.47. The final is at 10.01 NZ time (21.01 UK time) tomorrow, Friday 28 January.

Tonight’s action kicks off at 16.50 NZ time (03.50 UK time) with Aled Davies (coach: Anthony Hughes) in the men’s F42 discus final.

For the latest news about the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships, please visit www.ipcathleticsworldchamps.com, while the IPC’s online TV channel www.ParalympicSport.TV is broadcasting live coverage of the evening sessions from Christchurch.

Daily session reports will be posted on the UKA website: www.uka.org.uk