10 March 2011

IPC Athletics World Championships double gold medallist Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson) heads up a 25-strong Aviva GB&NI team for the IWAS World Junior Championships in Dubai, UAE from 14-21 April 2011.

Cockroft, the T34 multiple World Record holder and reigning Virgin Mini London Marathon champion, made a significant breakthrough in domestic competition in 2010 and is on course to make a huge global impact when she lines up in five events next month.  

World Championships (senior) individual bronze medallists Hollie Arnold, two-times defending World Junior champion Aled Davies, Kyron Duke (all coached by Anthony Hughes) and Sally Brown (Philip Tweedy) also add valuable experience to the squad of under-23 athletes.

The quartet, podium finishers in New Zealand in the F46 javelin, F44 discus, F40 javelin and T46 200m respectively, are joined by wheelchair racer Dan Lucker (coach: Jenny Archer) who dominated in the T54 category 12 months ago to win a total of 6 medals, including five gold.

Ola Abidogun (coach: Steve Thomas), Holly Neill (coach: Andrew Roda), Vicky Silk (coach: Anthony Hughes) and Owain Taylor (coach: Anthony Hughes), also victorious in 2010, return in a bid to retain their World Junior titles, while Jenny McLoughlin (coach: Darrell Maynard), a member of the senior World Championships T35-48 4 x 100m bronze medal winning quartet, will target an individual podium finish on this occasion.

Aviva GB&NI Team Leader Paula Dunn, said: “We had a hugely successful World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic last year winning a total of 43 medals, and I’m confident we can exceed that figure in Dubai.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve been able to select a talented – and in many cases experienced – junior team that includes nine athletes who competed at senior level in January’s IPC World Championships.

“A combination of factors have contributed to our ongoing progress in world disability sport, not least our increased professionalism and attention to detail.  We’ve developed a high quality UKA Disability Athletics Challenge Series and a number of Aviva Parallel Success events domestically, while in addition, and thanks to National Lottery funding and our ongoing support from Aviva, our athletes have increased opportunities to train and compete overseas.”

AVIVA GB&NI TEAM

Ola Abidogun (Steven Thomas): T46 100m/200m

Jonathan Adams (Malcolm Wallace): F34 Discus/Shot Putt

Hollie Arnold (Anthony Hughes): F46 Javelin

Joshua Bain (Paul Welch): F37 Discus/Shot Putt

Sally Brown (Philip Tweedy): T46 100m/200m

Sean Clare (Shelley Holroyd): F40 Discus/Shot Putt

Joshua Clark (Anthony Hughes): F37 Shot Putt

Hannah Cockroft (Peter Eriksson): T34 100m/200m/400m/800m/1500m

Aled Davies (Anthony Hughes): F42 Discus/Shot Putt

Kyron Duke (Anthony Hughes): F40 Discus/Javelin/Shot Putt

Thomas Green (Ken Green): F32 Discus/Club Throw

Ashleigh Hellyer (Anthony Hughes): F32 Shot Putt

Matthew Hickling (Paul Moseley):T34 100, 200m 400m

Daniel Lucker (Jenny Archer): T54 100m/200m/400m/800m/1500m/5000m

Jenny McLoughlin (Darrell Maynard): T37 100m/200m

Dean Miller (Bud Baldaro): T37 800m/1500m

Scott Moorhouse (Shelley Holroyd): F42 Javelin

Joshua Morgan (Anthony Hughes): F46 Shot Putt/Discus

Holly Neill (Andrew Roda): F40 Shot Putt/Discus

Vicky Silk (Anthony Hughes): F40 Shot Putt/Discus

William Smith (Jenny Archer): T54 100m/200m/400m/800m

Louis Speight (Andrew Henderson): T34 100m/200m/400m

Owain Taylor (Anthony Hughes): F57 Shot Putt/Discus

Kieran Tscherniawsky (Jim Edwards): F33 Discus

Shannon Wallace (Mikail Huggins): T35 100m