Howard Darbon writes, “After a quiet start to the season, the club’s Wheelchair Athletes have been involved in a number of races since the end of July.
Competing at Sandy on 28th July 2022 were Katie Connolly and Sean Chigumba.
Both athletes set season opening times in the 100m and 800m. For Sean, times of 25.1 seconds and 3:02.8 were his first experiences of competition in a racing chair. Katie set a personal best in the 100m of 27.6 seconds, and her time of 4:13.8 in the 800m was her first attempt at the 2 lap distance.
Two weeks later, the club took 4 athletes to Stoke Mandeville Stadium for the BWAA grand prix series. Sean and Katie were joined by Varun Bandi and Hugo Cracknell. All athletes competed over 100m, 200m and 400m with Sean and Katie also taking on the 800m for the second time. Personal bests tumbled. Notable performances were Sean’s 1st place in the 200m (38.97) Katie’s 200m (44.58) and 800m (3:10.15) which was 1 min 3 seconds quicker than at Sandy just 2 weeks earlier. Other impressive times came in the 100m from Hugo (23.47) and Varun (18.67), the latter being Varun’s first race since a leg-break left him unable to train or compete in his racing chair.
All four athletes will return to Stoke for the final BWAA competition of the season on Saturday 10th September.
Sean Chigumba also competed at our home track as part of England Athletics Under 15 & 17 National Championships, improving his personal bests in both the 100m (21.42) and 800m, collecting two bronze and one silver medal.
We have just received notice that Varun has been selected for the 2022 to 2024 England Athletics Youth Talent Programme. This is fantastic news and demonstrates the progress that both Varun and Bedford Wheelchair Racing has made since its formation nearly 3 years ago. It is also a big pat on the back for the section's three coaches - Zoe Luscombe, Michael Blunt and Sharmula Harman. Well done all!”
