Six Scots will head to Paralympics

Tuesday 26th July 2016

The #SALsuper6 for Parlaympics in Rio – photo montage by Bobby Gavin

Six Scottish athletes have been selected to represent GB and NI at the Paralympics in Rio.

The September event is the largest celebration of Para sports following on from the London Paralympics back in 2012.

Stef Reid and Libby Clegg were the two Scottish representatives on that occasion but they are joined now by another four athletes in a remarkable show of strength and huge encouragement for disability sport north of the border.

World IPC medallists Jo Butterfield and Maria Lyle had already been pre-selected for Rio prior to the full announcement on Tuesday. Long jumper Reid and sprinter Clegg, now reclassified under T11, were added and wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn and marathon runner Derek Rae complete the contingent.

All at scottishathletics firmly congratulate the athletes involved, their families and their coaches and the clubs involved in helping with their development in Para sport.

‘This is more good news for the sport in Scotland in the wider sense and in this case for Para athletes and their coaches,’ said Rodger Harkins, Director of Coaching.

‘It takes an enormous amount of hard work to ensure selection for the Paralympics and these athletes have to be very highly ranked in world terms in order to be selected. Well done to all those involved in putting in that hard work.

‘With 15 selected for the Olympics, we are looking at 21 Scottish athletes in total heading for Rio this summer to compete at the very highest level possible. It will be great for those athletes to experience that in Brazil.

‘Once again we have to credit the coaches involved who have guided these athletes and the clubs who helped with their development.’

The total Paralympic track and field team numbers 54 athletes.

Scottish Television website

Paula Dunn, Paralympic Head Coach with British Athletics, said: ‘I’m so proud of all the athletes selected today, and of the incredibly strong team of track and field athletes that we are taking to compete in Rio in just a few weeks.

‘There is some incredible talent here and the athletes have put everything into their training to ensure we are a world class team. We will be a force to be reckoned with once competition begins.’

Thirteen athletes, all gold or silver medallists at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships were selected in June of this year, including Lyle, Butterfield, Hannah Cockroft, David Weir and Richard Whitehead, taking the total number of track and field athletes to 54.

The announcement takes the number of selected athletes to 256 from 19 sports.

Tags: Derek Rae, Jo Butterfield, Libby Clegg, Maria Lyle, Paralympics, Rio, Rio 2016, Rodger Harkins, Sammi Kinghorn, Stef Reid