5th June 2017

ROWLINGS ENDS Nottwil WITH 5000M WORLD RECORD AS REID SEALS VICTORY

It was a great end to the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Nottwil as Ben Rowlings (coach: Job King) achieved his first ever world record in the T34 5000m.

Rowlings and compatriot Isaac Towers (Peter Wyman) worked together over the 12.5 laps with the Shropshire-based athlete just narrowly pipping the Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde athlete to the line, and in doing so, taking his place in the history books.

The 21 year-old commented afterwards: “It was good – me and Isaac worked together to get that world record. That had been the plan. It’s been a long race series out here in Switzerland – I think I’ve done every race from 100m to 5,000m so I just felt a little bit tired in my arms but I still had enough to sprint at the end and I’m happy.”

In the long jump, T44 silver medallist from Rio, Stef Reid (Aston Moore), is showing promising signs ahead of this summer’s World Para Athletics Championships as she won the competition with a best of 5.54m.

With husband, Brent Lakatos, fresh from world records on the track, overseeing coaching duties in Switzerland, Reid was inspired to beat strong rival Marlene van Gansewinkel (NED). With Paralympic champion Marie-Amelie Le-Fur missing the worlds in London this summer, the Briton’s consistency in the early stages on the season is giving her confidence but it will be quite a competition next month.

Earlier in the day, Hannah Cockroft (Jenni Banks) brought an end to a highly successful Swiss tour, where she has set a marvellous five world records along the way. On this occasion, the cooler and wet conditions were not favourable for fast times, but she still managed to past a sub 60 400m with 59.41.

She added afterwards: “My left arm kind of went to sleep a bit in that race – it felt like it was just going through the motions and not putting any power in which is frustrating, but we’ve done a lot of racing in two and a half weeks, so I’m happy to still go sub-one minute, it’s a time that before we came out here I would’ve been really chuffed with.”