Good luck to our four in Doha!

Tuesday 20th October 2015

British Athletics website media report – with link to live stream coverage

The excitement is mounting for four Scottish athletes as Great Britain’s best Para performers prepare for the IPC World Champs in Doha later this week.

Commonwealth Games gold medallist Libby Clegg leads the selections in a Scottish sense and is a regular at this level. But it will be a first experience for thrower Jo Butterfield, 15-year-old sprinter Maria Lyle and wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn.

The GB team numbers 48 in total and includes six reigning World champions following the last event in Lyon two years ago.

All at scottishathletics would like to wish ‘good luck’ to the four athletes with GB and congratulate them on their selections and their families, coaches and clubs involved in their development over recent years.

Ian Mirfin, our Para lead, is with the GB squad as they head from their training camp to the competition hotel and told us early today (Tuesday):

‘The guys are all in great form out here. Jo has been throwing out of her skin and is doing well while getting a chance to work directly with her lead coach, Phil Peat, to build on the regular guidance from Shona Malcolm.

‘Maria seems quite settled and is always smiling; Sammi has been fine, just a wee bit quieter than is often the case but actually it is usual for her as the races get nearer.

‘Libby has been quite relaxed but then she has seen it all before. She has a tough schedule of races with three rounds in her two events.’

The four Scots are generating some media interest and, ahead of the start of the Champs on October 22, we’ve pulled together links to that coverage.

Jo Butterfield is competing at the Worlds for the first time – some five years after the surgery which led to her being wheelchair-bound.

The adopted Glaswegian is among the favourites in here event and competes in the F51 club throw and discus

Read an interview with Jo by Mark Woods which appeared in the Sunday Herald.

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Maria Lyle is not yet 16 and the Dunbar Grammar Schoool pupil is relishing her arrival on the world stage.

BBC Sport visited her to find out how she juggles her studies and her Paralympic dream and spoke to coach Tabo Huntley as well as Jamie Bowie, East Lothian Athletics Development officer.

Maria, who has cerebral palsy, set a world record in the T35 200m on her international debut at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai in 2014.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/disability-sport/34559946?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=DTN+UK:

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Libby Clegg and guide runner mikail Huggins dip for the line to win gold at Commonwealth Games

Libby Clegg dips for the line to win gold for Scotland in T12 100m – photo by Bobby Gavin

Libby Clegg and Mikail Huggins were stars at Hampden at the Commonwealth Games – taking that memorable gold in the T12 100m final.

Now the countdown is on towards Rio next summer with Libby keen to make the podium at the Worlds and then focus on the winter training required to peak again next summer.

Here’s a special video interview with Libby and Mikail by SSE at their training base in Loughborough.

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Sammi Kinghorn is in line to compete in four events in Doha as she prepares to race at 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m.

That will undoubtedly mean a hectic schedule for the teenager from the Borders – who has made such a big impact on wheelchair-racing in the past couple of years.

Read a great blog post with Sammi on the website of her sponsors, Harper Macleod.

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Live Stream link on the Doha 2015 website

Tags: Doha, IPC World Champs, Jo Butterfield, Libby Clegg, Maria Lyle, Mikail Huggins, Sammi Kinghorn