Nathan Stephens shortlisted for 'Best Paralympic Performance in 2011'

Paul Dancey on 02/11/2011

Following a fantastic season and his Gold medal winning performance at the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in New Zealand in January, Nathan Stephens from Bridgend, has been short-listed for the Aviva UK Athletics 'Best Paralympic Performance in 2011'.

The Aviva UKA Athletics Awards 2011 will be taking place on Saturday 26th November in London, and the UKA's Head Paralympic Coach Peter Eriksson has nominated five Aviva GB&NI athletes for the Best Paralympics Performance of 2011 award.

At the age of nine, Nathan had both legs amputated after he was run over by a train. This accident has never stopped him aspiring to achieve his personal goals and at 21-years-old he is now a Junior World gold medallist in all three of his field events, F57 Discus, Javelin and Shot Put. Nathan has now moved away from Shot Put to concentrate on F57 Discus and Javelin.

Nathan is one of the UK’s most talented Paralympic athletes and has represented Great Britain at both the Paralympic Winter Games in 2006 in Sled Hockey and the Paralympic Games in Beijing last year, where he narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth in the javelin, eighth in the shot put and eleventh in the discus.

The inspirational athlete manages to combine his busy training and competition schedule with studying for a sports coaching degree at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC).

"Looking ahead to 2012, I think I'll be a lot more nervous than I was in Beijing as I'll be in front of a home crowd and the expectation is there", said Nathan. "But I take that on positively and think it will spur me on to do my best and hopefully get a podium spot. The BT Paralympic World Cup is always a good marker to know where you stand in the rankings and having the opportunity to compete there in the years leading up to 2012 is great".

You can vote for Nathan by visiting the on-line poll at http://www.misterpoll.com/polls/540011.

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