Europeans vital stepping stone for London 2012

Paul Dancey on 24/04/2012

World Silver Medallist Aled-Sion Davies believes that this year’s IPC European Athletics Championships in Stadskanaal, Netherlands (24-28 June), will be the strongest it’s even been and a great test for the 20-strong Aviva Great Britain and Northern Ireland team ahead of this summer’s Paralympic Games.

"I’m excited and really looking forward to the competition so that I can pit myself against the finest in Europe," says the 20 year-old who won Silver at last years’ IPC World Athletics Championships in New Zealand.

Davies went on to state: "On the back of returning from one of the best Warm Weather Training Camp I’ve been to, I’m ready to show what I’ve got. My first competition is this weekend at Gateshead, and each competition I will be going to will just be a stepping stone towards the ultimate prize of representing GB at the Paralympic Games in London later this summer".

Davies, from Bridgend, is joined on the GB Team by his Welsh team-mates Kyron Duke (Cwmbran), Tracey Hinton (Cardiff), Bev Jones (Queensferry), Jenny McLoughlin (Monmouth) and Claire Williams (Carmarthen). Also on the team is Hollie Arnold who has relocated from Grimsby to be coached by Sport Wales Coach of the Year 2011, Anthony Hughes out of the High Performance Centre at the National Indoor Athletics Centre in Cardiff.

With 6 welsh athletes part of the GB & NI Team it shows there is a 30% representation on the team by athletes from Wales.

"We’re fortunate to have a number of high quality competition opportunities across Europe and further afield over the next few months," says Aviva GB & NI Head Coach Peter Eriksson. "While this event wasn’t in everyone’s plans, it provides the perfect platform to develop our athletes where we believe that’s a priority, and in other cases fine tune their performances in events where they will be required to step up their game against their toughest rivals - and for many those athletes are in Europe - prior to London. It’s also a good test for the younger athletes."

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