Barbara Hoole became involved with the British Wheelchair Athletics Association (BWAA) from her work at the North West Regional Spinal Injury Centre in Southport. She is now working with people who use wheelchairs in their everyday life to give them the opportunity to get involved with field throwing events on a competition level.

Since its founding in 1982, the BWAA has had representatives at every major wheelchair sporting event. This will naturally continue in 2014 with the Glasgow Commonwealth games.

Wheelchair athletes compete in five field disciplines: Shot Put, Discus, Javelin, Club, and Pentathlon. For each of these events the athletes use individually designed throwing frames. Their website does point out that “Pentathlon, the most grueling of events, is a combination of three field and two track events to be completed by the athlete in a single day. The combination of events making up the pentathlon may differ according to the individual athlete’s category.”

Barbara believes that sport is “very important on all levels, whether it be social or fitness. There is no difference from a non disabled person.” With that in mind the BWAA use frames that are specially setup for each event. These frames enable the athletes to use the same throwing equipment (javelins, discus, shot, etc) as able bodied athletes

She was very positive about the 2012 Olympic Games and its effect on sports. The commonwealth games are hoped to be a further boost to sports in general and also para-sports. The only minor issue Barbara brought up was the lack of events available to the group while praising the full inclusive nature of the games themselves. While there are fewer events than usual, para-sports will take place on the same days and in the same venue as able bodied sport.

For anyone wanting to get involved in sport her advice is very simple “Go to your local sports center and ask!”

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