Disable athletic sprinter

Dear Blog,

                  Did you see any of the I.P.C., International Paralympic Competition on the television set on Sunday afternoon? Two observations ….(1) it was somewhat insulting to tack the races at the end of the Birmingham Games at the Alexandre Stadium like an afterthought, just  going through the motions of political correctness. We don’t really want them cluttering up the track but it looks good in the pre meet publicity?? (2) The insulting way in which most of the crowd got up and went home at the end of the able body races, a situation which could have been resolved if the disable events had been part of the main  programme … the crowd then would have been forced to witness how talented the disable athletes are. Of course, the irony of all those people leaving early is that they all missed some of the most exciting finishes of the afternoon. And I am also biased because I have a disable grandson.

                  An interesting start of one of the disable sprint races .. unfortunately I have been unable to find you a picture of the specific start to which I am referring, sorry Blog … involved a young lady on the inside lane of a ‘200’ I think. She adopted a starting stance with one hand held high behind her semi crouch position instead of the usual two handed crouch start; I assume this was because of her particular disability, although I do not know for sure. Any way ….. last year, Wilf Paish, the well-known coach died. I have known Wilf since 1963. For about a year before he died we were in a correspondence about the methods of sprint starting. Wilf has written a couple of authoritive books on the mechanics of athletics and I did a few sums at the Pink Panther University many years ago, I found them of interest. The correspondence between the two of us was about my theory that the modern way of a sprint start was very inefficient, and a better dynamical approach was to have a one handed support on the track with the body in a typical crouch position but with the other arm (the one opposite the lead leg)  raised to the rear of the athlete … almost identical to the one the young disable sprint athlete was using on Sunday. Of course Wilf died before we could do much actual trial work to resolve the theory, but it makes you wonder. I would certainly like to try to see what would happen with a group of sprinters with their coach to give the idea a trial!! Up for it Blog???

                                                   Colin