Notts paralympians

The Paralympics began on 6 September 2008

Nottinghamshire has 13 athletes and staff attending the Beijing Paralympics

Follow their Paralympic journey as we update this page with their progress.

Want to know when they will be competing? Please use the Nottinghamshire Paralympics schedule [PDF 6058 KB] to see the competition days for each sport.

Meet the Notts Paralympians

Joe Bestwick – Wheelchair basketball

Results

Sunday 7 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Preliminary Group B
China 34  Great Britain 81 (won)
Joe scored 9 points

Monday 8 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Preliminary Group B
Great Britain 48 v Australia 67 (lost)
Joe scored 09 points

Tuesday 9 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Preliminary Group B
USA 50 - Great Britain 54 (won)
Joe scored 11 points

Wednesday 10 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Men's-Preliminary Group B
Great Britain 69vs Brazil 53 (won)

Thursday 11 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Men's-Preliminary Group
Israel 67 vs Great Britain 82 (won)

Saturday 13 September  Mens Wheelchair Basketball Quarterfinals 3 - Germany 64 vs Great Britain 71 9won)

Sunday 14 September, Men's Wheelchair Basketball Semifinals 2
Great Britain 54 vs  Australia 67 (lost)

Tuesday 16 September Men's Wheelchair Basketball Bronze Medal
United States 77 vs Great Britain 85 (WON BRONZE MEDAL)

Joe, from Newark makes his Paralympic Games debut in Beijing although he has already achieved success with British teams on the international stage. He was a member of the team that won the European Championship silver last year and of the team that finished fifth at the 2006 World Championships.

He says "What I love about this sport is the physicality, the aggression,"

"I didn't know much about disabled sport when I went into it, but now I really appreciate the battle, the blood, sweat and tears side of it, the team ethic, five people working together to win a game. It is a sport which by its very nature is abundant in thrills and spills.”

Joe began training with the Nottingham Jaguars, and eventually got into the GB junior squad, aged 15, after being voted the most promising young player. He progressed to the national Under-23 team, who won two European Championships, and then to the senior team, winners of the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester two years ago and runners-up last year.

Before becoming a full-time player thanks to his lottery funding, he worked with disadvantaged young people for Nottinghamshire County Council.

His training routine includes "road work" in his wheelchair around the perimeter of the lake at Holme Pierrepont, where the national wheelchair squad often train, three gym sessions a week and shooting practice. He also swims.

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Natalie Blake - Powerlifting

Results
Wednesday 11 September - Women's -48 KG
Natalie finished in 6th place with a score of 97.5kg

Natalie, from Newark has 4 World Championships under her belt and will be competing in her third Games in Beijing. She placed 5th in Sydney 2000 and 4th in Athens 2004.

In June 2006 Natalie set a British Record at the National Powerlifting Championships with her lift of 92.5kg in the under 52kg category ahead of Paralympic team-mate Julie Salmon.

In September 2007 at the IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sport) World Games Natalie took gold in the women’s lightweight category with her lift of 90kg to equal her Personal Best. Since Athens, Natalie has dropped 2 bodyweight categories from 56kg to 48kgs.

Natalie began her Beijing experience at the team get-together at the end of July in Birmingham, where the new Beijing kit was on display and she represented the powerlifters on the catwalk.

To see Natalie on the catwalk (she is picture number 9) please visit the BBC website - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/paralympics/7530065.stm

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Matt Byrne – Wheelchair basketball

Results

Monday 8 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Preliminary Group B
Great Britain 48 v Australia 67 (lost)
Matt scored 0 points

Tuesday 9 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Preliminary Group B
USA 50 - Great Britain 54 (won)
Matt did not play

Wednesday 10 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Men's-Preliminary Group B
Great Britain 69vs Brazil 53 (won)

Thursday 11 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Men's-Preliminary Group
Israel 67 vs Great Britain 82  (won)

Thursday 11 September, Mens Wheelchair Basketball Men's-Preliminary Group
Israel 67 vs Great Britain 82 (won)

Saturday 13 September  Mens Wheelchair Basketball Quarterfinals 3 - Germany 64 vs Great Britain 71 9won)

Sunday 14 September, Men's Wheelchair Basketball Semifinals
Great Britain 54 vs  Australia 67 (lost)

Tuesday 16 September Men's Wheelchair Basketball Bronze Medal
United States 77 vs Great Britain 85 (WON BRONZE MEDAL)

Matt - from Bramcote in Broxtowe will be competing in his second Paralympics after being part of the bronze medal winning team in Athens in 2004.

He won a bronze at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester 2006 and 2007

He also has a silver medal from the world championships in Kitakyushu Japan in 2002 and 2 silvers and a bronze medal at the European championships in Sassari Italy (June 2003); Paris France (June 2005) and Wetzlar Germany (August 2007)

Matt took up the sport in 1991, making the Great Britain team in 2001.

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Arnie Chan – Table Tennis

Latest results

Saturday 13 September Men's Team Class 3 (LBA)
Match 3 Chan/Rawson beat Abuajela/Ahmed (LBA) 3-0

Born in Vietnam; Arnie took up table tennis in 1979. As with fellow team member James Rawson, Beijing will be his sixth successive Paralympic Games.

Arnie has already won team bronze at the Seoul Games in 1988 and the individual bronze at the Barcelona Games of 1992.

More recently, he won silver at the European Championships in Slovenia last year and a gold medal at this year’s Liverpool Open.

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Troye Collins – Wheelchair Rugby

Results

Sunday 14 September Wheelchair Rugby - Mixed Preliminary
AUS 43 - 37 GBR (Lost)

MIXED BRONZE MEDAL 3\4

Tuesday 16 September Wheelchair Rugby - Bronze Medal
GBR 41 - 47 CAN (lost)

Finished 4th place in finals.

One of the more experienced members of Britain’s wheelchair rugby team, Beijing will be Troye’s third Paralympic Games.

Now living in Retford, Bassetlaw, Troye plays with London Wheelchair Rugby Club.

The Paralympic teams in which Troye played came 6th in Sydney 2000 and 4th in Athens 2004. He was one of Team GB’s outstanding players at Athens, scoring 97 goals including 22 in the bronze medal match v USA.

He has 3 gold medals from European Championships in Lommel Belgium (2003), Billund Denmark 2005 and Espoo Finland (2007)

Troye grew up playing able-bodied rugby in South Africa but sustained an injury in 1992 playing hooker for a forces team when a scrum collapsed. He discovered wheelchair rugby after moving back to Britain.

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Charlotte Henshaw – Swimming

Results

Friday 12th September - Women's 100M Breaststroke - SB6, final Charlotte just missed out on the bronze medal, in a very close finish with a time of 1:45.28

A member of the Nova Centurion Swimming Club more than ten years; Charlotte has been competing for Great Britain since 2005.

Charlotte is a product of the Nova swimming development programme in Mansfield, under the stewardship of the District Council’s swimming coach: Glenn Smith.

Although from Mansfield, Charlotte is currently studying and training north of the border at Stirling University and has been adopted by Scottish Disability Sport.

The current Female Disability Swimmer of the Year; she recently took silver at the 2008 British Swimming Championships; setting, not only a personal best, but also, times that mark her out as number three in the world rankings in the SB6 100m event.

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Sam Hynd - Swimming

Results

Sunday 14 September

Men's 50m Freestyle - S8 Heat 1

Friday 12 September - SM8 400m Freestyle
Sam Hynd who, breaking his own world record with a time of 4.26.25, took Gold in the Men's  400M freestyle - S8

Thursday 11 September - SM8 200m individual medley
Well done to Sam, a member of Notts Nova Centurion, who won Bronze in the Men's 200M Individual Medley - SM8 with a time of 2.29.93

Sam was also a member of the Gold winning relay team.

Tuesday 9 September - SB8 100m breastroke final
Sam clocked a new British record of 1.15.29 minutes as he finished fifth with Andriy Kalyna breaking the world record to win gold

Monday 8 September - S8 100m freestyle final
Sam put in an impressive swim, clocking a personal best time and new British record of 1.01.04 minutes as he finished sixth with home favourite Xiaofu Wang setting a new Games record to take gold.
"I am happy with that," he said. "A new PB is the perfect start ahead of a big week."

Sam (nicknamed Salmon) will make his Paralympic début in Beijing although he has been swimming for Great Britain since 2004.

2008 has been a ground-breaking year for Sam, He broke Wang Xiaofu’s 400m freestyle record at the British Championships in April by almost two seconds and smashed this record at the Paralympic Trials in April. He broke his own record for a fourth and fifth time at the German Open Championships in Berlin.

Sam is a student from Kirkby-in-Ashfield. He is a member of Nova Centurion Swimming Club and is coached by Glenn Smith of Mansfield District Council.

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Chris Martin – Athletics (Discus F33)

Latest results

This will be Chris’s 3rd Paralympics. He took gold (discus) and silver (javelin) at Sydney 2000 and finished just outside medals in Athens after which he retired from the sport.

Chris began training with Mansfield Harriers and competing again in 2007 and proved he is still capable of world class performances, throwing a distance ranked top-3 in the world.

At the British Open Athletics Championships in Manchester in June 2008, he threw 28.91 in the discus competition to beat the previous best of 28.73 in the F33 category.

Martin said: "My throwing hasn't been great recently so I'm delighted with the record,"

Martin's record came just a couple of weeks after he claimed gold in the same venue at the Paralympic World Cup.

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David Phillipson – Wheelchair Tennis

Latest results
Monday 8 September, Mens Wheelchair Tennis Mens Singles - Round 1
David beat Yann Mathieu (CAN) 6-3, 6-1

Tuesday 9 September, Mens Wheelchair Tennis Mens singles -Round 2
David lost to Martin Legner (8) (AUS) 0-6, 0-6

Wednesday 10 September Wheelchair Tennis Men's Doubles - Open Round of 32

David and Gordon Reid lost to Marek Gergely and Jozef Felix (SLOV) 0-2

David, from Bingham in Rushcliffe is competing in his first Games following an excellent transition to the senior ranks. He is world ranked No.25 in mens singles (June 08) and world ranked No.48 in mens doubles (June 08). He became the GB mens No.1 in March 2008, breaking the 14yr reign of now retired four-time Paralympian Jayant Mistry.

He made a winning start to his senior Great Britain debut at the Invacare World Team Cup - the Davis and Federation Cups of wheelchair tennis, in Cremona, Italy in June.

The 19-year-old recovered from a slow start against Sri Lankan Upali Rajakurna to win 7-6(2), 6-1 having come from 3-5 down in the first set to clinch it on the tie-break. He then put in a much more assured second set performance to put the tie beyond Sri Lanka after Scottish team mate Gordon Reid had won the opening singles rubber 6-0, 6-0.

He won the Cardiff Wheelchair Tennis Tournament singles title in 2006 and 2007 and took a silver in the boys singles (2008) and gold in the mens doubles (2007) at the International Wheelchair Tennis Junior Masters.

David has played tennis for 10 years and was previously a Great Britain junior basketball player.

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James Rawson – Table Tennis

Results

Tuesday 9 September - Mens table tennis class 3
Won against Luiz Algacir Silva (BRA) 3-1

Saturday 13 September Men's Team Class 3 (LBA)
Match 2 Won against Ali Mabrouk Ahmed (LBA) 3 0

Saturday 13 September Men's Team Class 3 (LBA)
Match 3 Chan/Rawson beat Abuajela/Ahmed (LBA) 3-0

Sunday 14 September Men's Team Class 3 (France))
Match 2 Lost to Robin 3-2

Sunday 14 September Men's Team Class 3 (France))
Match 2
Robinson/Rawson lost to Robin/Merrien 3-1

Monday 15 September Men's Team Class 3 - Bronze Medal Contest vs China
Match 2 Won against Zhao 3-2

Monday 15 September Men's Team Class 3 - Bronze Medal Contest vs China
Macth 3 Robinson/Rawson lost by 3 -2 to Feng/Zhao

Monday 15 September Men's Team Class 3 - Bronze Medal Contest vs China
Match 4 Lost 3 -0 against Feng

Team finished 4th place in finals.

James – who works in the Employee Services Centre at Nottinghamshire County Council, began playing table tennis aged 9. This will be his 6th Paralympic Games – his first being in Seoul in 1988. He won team gold at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games before going on to win team and individual bronze in 1996 at Atlanta 1996 plus team silver at both the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Games.

He has also won silver (team) and bronze (singles) world championship medals.

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Sophie Wells - Equestrian Dressage Team

18 year old Sophie Wells from Harby in Newark has been named as a reserve for this year's Paralympics and even if she doesn’t get a ride this time, she has her sights firmly set on a place in the GB squad for 2012.

Last month at Hickstead she became the first para-equestrian rider to win an international able-bodied dressage competition on her horse Touchdown II, affectionately known as Touchy.

She has been busy training after being named the grade IV first reserve for the GB Para-Equestrian Dressage Team for the Paralympic Games taking place in Hong Kong and has also passed the three A-levels she needed to win a place at Lincoln University to study sports science.

Sophie is supported by the World Class Development programme, a lottery-funded UK Sport initiative to maximise the competitive potential of talented riders, able-bodied or disabled.

Sophie was born with Amniotic Band Syndrome, which affected her hands and ankles and meant she was born with most of her fingers missing. She rides using one finger on each hand using special reins with loops for her fingers.

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Danny West – Athletics (F34 discus and shot)

Latest results

Friday 12 September - Men's Shot Put - F33/34/52 Final

Notts AC athlete Danny will be competing at his fourth Games

In 1996 at Atlanta, he won a bronze (shot) then silver at the 1998 World Championships in Birmingham. At the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney he won a bronze in the discus competition with a 4th place in the discus competition in Athens 2004.

Personal Bests - Discus 40.16m (2007), Shot 10.85m (2007)

Danny was always very sporty and used to compete at swimming as well as wheelchair basketball, but he much preferred the individual sports to the team sports and so continued with athletics competing in both the shot and discus.

Danny works at Loughborough University as an information and communication officer in disability sport, which he hopes to continue after his athletics career.

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