Jade Jones is emerging as a new star, setting a course record on her way to the U17 girls wheelchair Mini Marathon title. See more photographs at www.burdus.com/gallery2.html

Jade Jones wins Virgin London Mini Marathon in a course record. Photo Credit David Burdus

In the eleventh adidas Silverstone half marathon today, the windy conditions were tough for the wheelchair athletes, but nothing could stop Paralympic athlete, David Weir in his first race since his four brilliant gold medals at the 2012 Paralympic Games. Weir led from the start, passing the five-mile mark in 17 minutes on his way to an impressive win of 47:32, more than five minutes ahead of second-place Simon Lawson

Weir said afterwards: “I found today’s conditions tougher than last year (when Weir set a new course record of 45:20) but the race went well. I feel like I’m in pretty good shape considering the amount of time I’ve had out. Today’s race revealed what I need to do in training, so I’ll knuckle down for the next seven weeks so I’m ready to give it my best shot and go for a record seven wins at this year’s London Marathon.”

In the women’s wheelchair race, 17-year-old Jade Jones knocked an incredible 10 minutes off the previous course record to win in 62:09. Jones is too young to take part in the full London Wheelchair Marathon this April but she’ll take part in the Virgin Money Giving Mini Marathon, which she’s won twice. “I felt great out there,” said Jones. “Winning here today has given me a huge boost before the Mini Marathon; it’s such an amazing event and the spectators really spur me on.”

Jade Jones sets new Silverstone course record in 62:09. Photo Credit David Wearn/Adidas Silverstone 1/2 Marathon

Wheelchair – Men

David Weir (Kingston & Poly) 47:32
Simon Lawson (BWRA) 52:47
Phil Hogg (Kingston & Poly) 53:21
Sheikh Muhidin (Kingston & Poly) 59:09
Matthew Clarke (BWRA) 60:38
James Goddard 68:28

Wheelchair – Women

Jade Jones (BWRA) 62:09
Elizabeth McTernan (Cleethorpes) 92:55

Tanni opened a new factory for Meditek, the lobal stairlift company, last week, where Managing Director, Phil Rice, gave a £500 donation for the BWRA to her. Articles about the event will be appearing in Ability Needs and The Homecare Industry Information Service magazines which will include BWRA details in the hope that readers can become more involved or donate money.

With any luck it will raise our profile in the homecare industry and hopefully raise more funds. A big thankyou MediTek from all of our members!

JANUARY 2013 MediTek's M.D., Phillip Rice, presents a £500 cheque to Tanni for the BWRA.

New Years Honours List
Congratulations to the following current and former wheelchair racers who were recognised in the New Year’s Honours List: David Weir - receives a CBE; Mickey Bushell, Hannah Cockroft, and Josie Pearson - receive OBEs.

IWAS World Games
The 2013 IWAS World Games will be held in Stadskanaal, Netherlands. Stichting Disability Games Foundation (DGF) has been awarded the Games when they stepped into the bid process following the withdrawal of the Alicante, Spain bid to host the Games. The Games will take place from 14-22 September 2013 at the Pagecentrum Holiday Village where the swimming pool and other indoor facilities are located and only 700 metres from the Athletics venue. Due to the short time frame the organising committee has announced that a full programme of sports is not viable. The events will be Athletics (classes 30+, 40+, 50+). The programme will include a separate programme for masters10) and Archery (all classes) If you require any further information please contact Steve Snelling at Wheelpower. For more information, click here.

2013 IWAS World Junior Championships
The 2013 IWAS World Junior Championships are taking place in Puerto Rico in August 2013. Due to various concerns around security, timing and competition quality, UKA will NOT be entering a team into the competition next year.

Virgin London Marathon Wheelchair
Please note that the Virgin London Marathon Wheelchair entries are now open. Please go to the link below to register. Please feel free to pass this onto any one you feel qualifies and may want to take part http://www.virginlondonmarathon.com/ballot/wheelchair_entry/

Westminster Mile Races – 26th May “I would like to bring your attention to the a new race we will be running later this year in May, The Westminster Mile. We will be running a junior and adults wheelchair race as well as a race for Visually impaired athletes in classes T11-T13 for juniors and adults. We would expect all those who enter to have a classification. Please follow the link below to the website that will give you information about the event, DO NOT ENTER ON LINE, but e-mail me directly if you are interested in taking part. www.westminstermile.co.uk Please will you pass these details onto any one whom you think would be interested in taking part. You will notice that it says that anyone wanting to enter needs to get in touch with myself so please make sure you forward my e-mail address onto the relevant person/athlete so they can contact me. I will then forward details onto how they enter. Thanks Michelle michellew@london-marathon.co.uk

UK Sport/Sport England
The Guardian has reported that after a period of prolonged discussion, the planned merger between UK Sport and Sport England will no longer take place. Tim Lamb, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance stated 'What's important now is that UK Sport and Sport England work closely together to learn from one another and fulfil their different roles in supporting national governing bodies at both grassroots and elite level.'

Jenni Banks to become new UKA Wheelchair Racing Coach
As many of you will have read from the UKA website, we have recently announced the recruitment of Jenni Banks to a new position as UKA wheelchair racing coach. Some of you may remember the tall Aussie Jenni from her work with a number of athletes on the wheelchair racing scene in the 80s and 90s, before she moved into leading the overall Australian Paralympic sports programme. Lots of knowledge and experience. Paula Dunn confirmed as new UKA Paralympic Head Coach “…….UK Athletics has named Paula Dunn as the newly appointed Paralympic Head Coach, replacing Peter Eriksson. Dunn was an integral part of the Paralympic coaching team who dramatically turned around the performance of GB athletes since the 2008 Paralympic Games, with the team finishing second in the medal table in the 2011 World Championships and third at the London Paralympic Games this summer. As a former 100m European bronze and Commonwealth silver medallist, Dunn is no stranger to the pressures of being a leading international athlete and her extensive experience in both competing and coaching on the world stage are a unique and valuable asset to the Paralympic team. Dunn, who takes up the post with immediate effect said: “London 2012 had an amazing impact on Paralympic sport in this country and we have a real opportunity to build on that over the next four years. I believe that there is more talent out there and I am looking forward to unearthing that talent and building on the success of 2012. Working closely with Peter over the past four years has been superb, but I am looking forward to taking the reins and continuing what is in effect a long term plan to see further medal success in Rio in 2016. As a former European and Commonwealth Games medallist, I know the commitment, passion and sheer determination it takes to achieve the very best. I have used this experience to develop some of the best Paralympic athletes in the world and I can't wait to take the team to the next level." UKA Performance Director Neil Black said: "Paula played a significant role in the Paralympic team's success at London 2012 and she is an outstanding appointment who will ensure continuity as well as further improvements in fulfilling this role. Whilst the Paralympic team was excellent in London, finishing third in the world with 29 medals, 11 of which were golds, there is a great platform on which to build and I believe that we can still improve for Rio 2016." About Dunn Paula Dunn was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, on 3 December 1964. She forged a career in athletics as one of Great Britain's best female sprinters with personal bests of 11.15 seconds for 100m and 22.69 for 200m, ranking her fifth all-time in Great Britain for both events. She competed at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay and won two Commonwealth Games medals over 100m; firstly taking silver in Edinburgh in 1986 and then clinching bronze eight years later in Victoria, Canada. Dunn has worked in the UK Athletics Performance team for 11 years and was appointed to the role of Paralympic Performance Manager in 2009. Based at Sport City in Manchester, Dunn has worked with a number of Great Britain's Paralympic athletes, including all of the athletes on the Podium Potential level of the World Class Performance Programme and seven of the athletes on Podium level. She was also coach to Katie Jones, who competed in the 400m hurdles at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester……..”

2013 IPC Athletics License
The IPC Athletics licensing process will be commencing within the next couple of months. Details of the 2013 programme have not yet been received from IPC Athletics, but it is likely to be similar to that of previous years. Any athlete wishing to gain qualification (and subsequent selection) for the 2013 World Championships must have a valid IPC Athletics license to do so. If you have any questions regarding the licensing process, please contact Jan Richards at jrichards@uka.org.uk. Also, performances need to be at IPC Approved/Endorsed events. As well as championship and Grand Prix type events, local non-disabled events can be used to obtain times BUT these events (or you!) would need to apply to IPC for Approval from IPC – not a big deal, just check the approval system on

2013 IPC Athletics World Championships
The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships will take place in Lyon, France, from 20-29 July. The qualification criteria has now been released by the IPC, and UKA are working on our selection policy - this will expected to be published on the UKA website before Christmas 2012. Representatives from UKA have already travelled to Lyon to inspect the facilities, and finalising plans for the holding camp, which will run from approximately 10 to 22 July 2013. As always, all selected athletes will be expected to attend the camp. Further information will be available on the Paralympic Portal as and when it is released. User Name (NOT CaSe SeNsItIvE): UKAthletics\UKA-PP-Team Password (CaSe SeNsItIvE): gb-para-team

Rio 2016 Medal Event Programme
The IPC Athletics Summit was held last week in Frankfurt Germany. The most important and hotly debated topic on the agenda was that of the proposed changes to the medal event programme for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The summit followed various rounds of proposals and feedback from the IPC with regards the Rio programme. UKA have been involved in this process from the outset, and have provided suggestions and objections to all draft proposals from the IPC. No definitive answer was reached at the summit in terms of a finalised event programme, but a few key points were confirmed: - A FINAL DRAFT medal event programme will be published early in 2013. This will more than likely represent the confirmed Rio events, but the programme itself will not be officially ratified by the IPC until after the 2013 World Championships; - There will be NO point score table for field events. All events offered will be single class events, with placing decided on distance alone. This will therefore mean that there will be a significant reduction in the number of medal events available for field events. In some instances, if an athlete's preferred event is not on the programme, they may be able to compete "up" alongside another class. However, the circumstances and classifications under which this will be permitted have not been decided; - The Rio programme will feature a greater spread of events across classes, disciplines and genders than previously. The total number of events will not change (170), but there will be more women's events and more class 20 events. There will also be a greater spread of events across disciplines, which will result in less short sprints (100m/200m) and more middle and long distance races (including marathons); - There will be some changes to V.I. (visually Impaired) events and/or classification - various options were discussed at the IPC Summit, but no clear consensus was reached. This will potentially involve either a collapsing of the 3 V.I. classes, OR change in the technical rules regarding the current 3 classes, coupled with a reduction in the number of events available to each class; - There will be some changes to seated throws. The initial proposal from the IPC (following a significant review) was for seated throws to throw from a truly seated position - i.e. no lifting. This was met with little positivity and as such this is being revisited by the IPC; - Male T43 and T44 (leg amputee) athletes will be separated and run as individual classes. A decision on whether T43/44 female athletes will also be split was not made. However, due to the numbers of athletes involved, it is thought likely that they will continue to run together; Whatever the outcome of the individual points outlined above, it is important for individual athletes and coaches to understand that there will undoubtedly be some individuals that will lose their primary and most successful event(s). The IPC's decision to move to single class field events means that with a static total number of available events, a significant number of events will have to be lost. Various draft versions of the programme have been published by the IPC previously, and UKA have taken the decision NOT to share this widely as the programme will continue to evolve until fully signed off by the IPC. UKA will not take any decisions regarding WCPP funding in relation to the Rio programme until a final version has been published and we can be confident of no changes. We will though be gearing our talent ID and grassroots initiatives towards those events that we expect to feature in Rio. Finally, if you are one of the unfortunate individuals who loses their primary event, please be aware that we will not be in a position to argue for every individual event. This decision is much bigger than one individual, or Great Britain as a whole - every country will want to protect the medal interests of their own athletes. UKA have done as much as possible to protect British interests, but in many cases this simply won't be possible and we cannot put a case forward for every individual event.

Classification changes
Also discussed at the IPC Summit were proposed changes to the classification system. These will only affect a small number of classes, and none of the changes were confirmed at the summit itself. The majority of the alterations were for minimum disability criteria, particularly for class 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 46 and 54. In most cases, the minimum disability criteria are actually being extended slightly, but in a small number of cases (38, 41, 45/46) it is being tightened.

IPC Athletics Series
“2013 will see the launch of the IPC Athletics Competition Series. This will represent the beginning of a global competition series similar to the IAAF Diamond League, in which a selection of core events will be staged across a number of competitions around the world throughout the year. It is not currently known what the featured events will be, or how entry/eligibility will be coordinated. The 2013 series will be a "soft-launch" - this means that the series will be rolled out on a reduced scale, with a smaller number of events than will be anticipated from 2014 onwards. A website detailing the series will be launched early in 2013, with information available on all of the competitions included within the series. Whilst the series is absolutely in its infancy, we believe events such as these are extremely important to the future strength and profile of Paralympic athletics within the UKA and around the world. This is an extremely positive step and one that we have been pushing towards for a number of years. It is therefore imperative that athletes utilise the potential opportunities that these competitions bring.

2013 IPC Athletics World Championships Selection Policy
“The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships selection policy has now been written and is awaiting approval before publication on the UKA website. The selection process will be very similar in nature to the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Paralympic Games, but with a view to developing athletes for future competitions. With that in mind, the intention will be to select athletes on the basis of the 2012 Paralympic Games medal programme. We will amend our approach and select athletes in events that feature on the 2016 medal programme, ONLY when the FINAL 2016 programme is published by the IPC. If this does not happen prior to the selection date for the World Championships (17 June 2013), we will select athletes on events that formed the London 2012 Paralympic Games programme. With the various structural changes ongoing within UKA, it is likely that this policy will not be signed off for publication until early in 2013. We will communicate further details for this newsletter, but in the meantime, please continue checking the UKA website. UKA will also be in a position to confirm the holding camp venue for the World Championships by the end of January 2013.

Parking at Stoke Mandeville
As you are all aware there are new car parking restrictions in place on site organised by MET parking. You may have noticed there are many red and yellow signs up around the car parking areas detailing a maximum stay time of 3 hours. Thank you to all of you who have provided your members car registration number in advance these are all now with MET parking to stop fines being issued during your stay on site. If there are any outstanding or new member please contact Stoke Mandeville and you can be added to the database, you are also able to register your car on arrival at site with either at the Stadium or Lodge reception. This registration of your car does not exempt you from being issued a ticket for non-display of your blue badge when parking in disabled bays. If there is an issue with delay of your blue badge please contact Victoria Hawkes (Events Manager Stoke Mandeville Stadium) with details of the reg number and I can pass onto MET. Any disputes with tickets issued by MET parking need to be raised with them directly and contact details can be found on the ticket, or on the signs displayed around the car park.

Open Men
1st - Kurt Fearnley Australia 21:42, 2nd - Josh Cassidy Canada - 21:45, 3rd - Kota Hokinoue Japan - 21:45

Open Women
1st - Madison de Rozario Australia 24:41, 2nd - Christie Dawes 25:45, 3rd - Keira-Lyn Frei Canada - 26:11

Open Quad
1st - Michelle Stilwell Canada 30:56

Tanni gave a talk to O.C. Tanner on 14th June 2012, where CEO Dave Peterson, gave a £500 donation for the BWRA to her. A big thankyou O.C. Tanner from all of our members!

Mary Obozua from O.C. Tanner said, ‘June 14th, 2012 was a great day in the events calendar of OC Tanner Europe. We hosted a HR event at the wonderful Olympic Village, Stratford, with guest speaker Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson. We had great feedback on how the day went, to which we are very grateful however, we cannot be more proud of the closing activities. We had the pleasure of presenting Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson with a cheque to her favourite charity-BWRA. What made the day more special was our CEO, David Peterson, tripling the donation! We really hope this donation continues the work of the charity to offer equality, opportunity and a voice’.

JUNE 2012 O.C. Tanner CEO, Dave Peterson, presents a £585 cheque to Tanni for the BWRA with Mary Obozua looking on.