18 May 2012

Double World Champion Hannah Cockroft (coach: Peter Eriksson) was once again in World Record breaking form as she clocked sub-18 seconds for the first time in the T34 100m with 17.67 (+1.6m/s) at the Daniela Jutzeler Memorial meeting in Switzerland (Thursday 17 May), smashing her previous global best.

She achieved an impressive double, also re-writing the record books in the T34 200m with 31.45 (+1.9m/s).

Cockroft’s 100m performance at the start of a long day of events set the standard for a number of impressive results over the course of the competition including PB times for Mel Nicholls (Job King) in the T34 100m (20.90/+1.6m/s) and 200m (35.93/+1.9m/s); Stephen Osborne (Hayley Ginn) in the T51 100m (22.32/+1.2m/s) and 200m (42.69); and Jamie Carter (Jenny Archer) in the T34 100m – a PB of 17.32 but an illegal +2.1m/s wind – and a PB of 31.33 in the 200m (+1.9m/s); and 16-year-old Jade Jones (Ian Thompson/Tanni Grey-Thompson) who was consistently strong in tough conditions, concluding with a PB in the T54 5000m (12:10.14).

“It was a long competition but the quality was very high with most of the best athletes in the world and very few missing,” said UKA Head Coach Peter Eriksson.

“It was windy, but more of a cross wind than a head wind, so it benefited the sprints events but put the middle distance guys at more of a disadvantage.

“We had a number of impressive performances including Stephen Osborne, who is still relatively new to the sport after playing wheelchair rugby but was only marginally off the back of the new World Record holder Toni Piispanen of Finland, and also from junior Jamie Carter. Jade (Jones) was fantastic across all distances and Georgina (Oliver) really stepped up.

“The more experienced athletes like Mickey Bushell (first in the T53 100m and second in the 200m) and Anne Strike also raced some good times.

“The longer events were badly affected with the cross wind but until his crash in the 1500m David Weir looked great. He will be back to race this weekend. Shelly (Woods) showed good form but was marginally out of the medals, although the tactical errors that cost her are things that can be worked on and improved which is still positive.”

Full day one results can be found through the follownig link to the event website.

The action continues in Switzerland this weekend followed by the BT Paralympic World Cup back in the UK (Manchester) on Tuesday 22 May.