21 April 2011

Will Smith (coach: Jenny Archer) won his fourth gold medal of the week – his fifth medal in total – on the final day of competition at the IWAS World Junior Championships in Dubai, UAE (17-21 April) to contribute to a record medal haul of 45 for the Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team.

The 15-year old, who topped the podium twice on day three with victories in the T54 under-20 200m and under-16/18 800m to build on an earlier victory in the T54 100m and silver in the 1500m, concluded his packed programme of events with gold in the T54 under-18 400m (55.28).

Also on the track, Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson), the senior World Champion over 100m and 200m in the T34 category, secured her fourth podium finish and second gold medal of the Championships in spite of competing in a mixed classification race, with victory in the T34/T53 under-23 400m (1:06.92), while defending champion Dan Lucker (coach: Jenny Archer) took his fourth and fifth medals of the week with gold in the T54 400m (56.57) and silver in the under-23 5000m (15:18).

On the infield, Sean Clare (coach: Shelley Holroyd), double bronze medallist in 2010, made it an impressive gold medal double on this occasion with a lifetime best to take gold in the F40 under-20 shot putt (9.14m), with IPC World Championships silver medallist and defending IWAS World Junior champion Aled Davies (coach: Anthony Hughes) matching the achievement of his team mate and securing his own gold medal double with victory in the F42 under-23 discus (42.12m).

There were also gold medals for last year’s silver medallist and IPC World Championships bronze medallist Hollie Arnold (coach: Anthony Hughes) in the F46 under-23 javelin (31.22m) and Thomas Green in the F32 Club Throw (25.45m).

Kyron Duke (coach: Anthony Hughes), recently crowned IWAS World Junior Champion in the javelin, took silver in the F40 under-20 shot putt in a lifetime best of 8.77m, while bronze medals on day four came from his training partner Vicky Silk (coach: Anthony Hughes), who secured F40 under-23 javelin bronze to add to her discus title and silver medal in the shot putt, and Josh Clark (coach: Anthony Hughes), who recorded a PB to finish third in the F37 under-20 shot putt.

Joshua Morgan (coach: Anthony Hughes) also recorded a PB in the men’s under-23 F46 discus, but was unfortunate to finish just outside the medals in fourth (32.40m), as were Josh Bain (coach: Paul Welch) in the F37 under-18 shot putt (8.80m) and Louis Speight (coach: Andrew Henderson) in the T34/T53 under-23 400m (1:18.33).

Ashleigh Hellyer (coach: Anthony Hughes) finished eighth in the F32 under-23 shot putt (6.00m) while Matthew Hickling (coach: Paul Moseley), bronze medallist in the 100m and fourth in the 200m, had to withdraw from the combined T34/T53 under-23 400m with a hand injury.

Exceeding last year’s tally by two, the breakdown of 23 gold, 14 silver and eight bronze is the best ever performance by an Aviva GB & NI team at this event and Team Leader Paula Dunn was delighted: “Firstly, I want to say well done to all of the athletes who delivered some great performances including a significant number of personal bests,” she said. “The team finished number one in the medal table so credit to all of them, but it was a great team effort overall, so congratulations and thanks also to the team coaches, management and medical staff, we’ve had a very successful Championship which builds confidence ahead of next year and continues the good progress we’re making at both junior and senior level.”