Steeplechase

Another day watching athletics with Carys. Quite different this time as our view was not the greatest, but Carys still loved it. Since February she has improved to Step 2 of the sports ladder of success (It is aimed at 8year olds and up, so not bad for a just 4 year old.). She got the autograph of Gemma Simpson (800m) and Felix Sanchez (400mH) who spoke to her as an equal while signing.

The biggest difference of todays meeting was that this morning there was a paralympic event so many of the atheletes were still around watching the Diamond League. This lead to many questions from Carys as to why people can't walk and run like she can, why people are born without legs and in some cases without arms too. She took it all in and turned to me and said 'I'm lucky aren't I?'.

She was also intrigued when a number of T42/44 (above and below knee amputees) wandered by holding their racing 'blades'. She asked what they were and what they were using to walk on now. When the T42/44 200m was about to start I pointed out that they were running on their 'blades'. When she saw them running all she could say was 'WOW!' Another convert to paralympic athletics and how good these atheletes are.

Sadly due to our position and over zealous security guards, every ten metres, my shots of the race were at best obscured and at worst rubbish. So I chose this shot of Eilish McColgan, who ran a PB, less than 2 seconds outside of the world championships A standard. She surely would have got it if she hadn't slipped on the final water jump and hurt her ankle.