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With Team GB successes coming thick and fast in the Athletics at the Paralympic Games we look back (remember when postboxes were painted red) and forwards to what will come next.

Back in early 2010 London 2012 seemed a long way away. But one rainy day at Cambridge we caught up with a young sprinter called Jonathan Peacock.
Last night the Olympic stadium was erupting to the chanting of his name and it was only him putting his figure to his lips that was able to silence 80,000 people to ‘hear-a-pin-drop’ volume levels before bringing the noise to a crescendo once more 10.90sec after the gun sounded as he crossed the line to take gold.

While many are predicting there is a great deal more to come for him we can look back on what we found out for that Spring 2010 issue of Setting The Pace.

We learned, “While many athletes are name checking the games at the moment Jonathan’s career is very closely linked to the games. He explained that he had not been involved in the sport until his prosthetist told him about a ParalympicsGB Talent Identification day at Mile End, in London. Jonathan explained, “I went along and took part in several sports. A few days later I received an email asking me to attend the five month power programme trials because of my 60m time.”

“Jonathan’s ability meant he got through the selection process and attended several training weekends at Loughborough. From there UKA linked Jonathan up to Cambridge based Level 3 sprints coach Hayley Ginn – one of the coaches on England Athletics’ National Coach Development Programme.

“It wasn’t just the test performances as part of the talent identification process that were attracting attention. After just a couple of weeks on the programme Jonathan won the Aviva Parallel Success 100m event at the Aviva Crystal Palace Grand Prix in 13.10sec. He then went on to the UK School Games and lowered his personal best to 12.85sec...”

Jonnie had attracted the attention of England Athletics sponsors Sunwise. But he was starting on a pathway that would see him relocating to Lee Valley and going on to break the T44 world record at the US Paralympic Track and Field Trials on 1 July this year with a time of 10.85sec.

Back in Spring 2010 England Athletics was just starting to work on our ‘Are You Ready?’ campaign to challenge ourselves, our clubs and people across our sport about whether they would be ready for the opportunities presented by the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. We finished our article on Jonnie by saying, “Whether it is lashing with rain or bright sunshine when the gun goes he will be ready.” He certainly was!

Be part of the future!

Whether you want to become and athlete, help coach disabled athletes or work to improve the offering your club is able to make England Athletics is working across the sport to develop disability athletics.

England Athletics has a team of Disability Athletics Support Officers who are able to help disabled people become involved in athletics as well as working with clubs and coaches to help them make the best possible provision for disabled athletes.

Giving it a go
If you want to give athletics a go or just want to find out more you can register your details at www.englandathletics.org/disabledathleteinfo. This will help us to support you appropriately and provide the right information about your disability athletics pathway.

Helping to develop disability athletics
Clubs, coaches and event organisers can also find out more about the support and advice available to them at www.englandathletics.org/disabilityathletics.

Information in this section of our site includes information on England Athletics' Inclusion Policy, and our Inclusive Club Health Check which we can support clubs to work through.

Flying Coach visits are available by request to provide specific support, knowledge and skills to clubs and coaches currently working with disabled athletes. Are you interested in coaching deaf or disabled athletes? Anyone can register their interest, whether an existing or current coach, interested in transferring knowledge or if you are new to coaching:

• Wheelchair Racing: An introduction to basic push technique, chair set up and training programmes.
• Seated throws: Advice and guidance on seated throws, including throwing frames, tie downs and fixings.
• Coaching blind or visually impaired athletes: Advice and guidance on supporting blind or visually impaired athletes, to include guide running and competition pathways. See Guide Running document on the right.
• Coaching deaf or hearing impaired athletes: Advice and guidance on coaching deaf and hearing impaired athletes. To include information on effective communication, technology, Deaf UK Athletics and competition pathways.
• Coaching athletes with a learning disability: Advice and guidance on coaching athletes with a learning disability. To include information on Mencap, Special Olympics and competition pathways.
• Other impairment specific visits: Advice and guidance on coaching athletes with a specific impairment (Cerebral Palsy, amputees etc). To include information on National Disability Sports Organisations and competition pathways.

To arrange a Flying Coach visit, to register your interest to coach or for further specific support and advice please contact the relevant Disability Athletics Support Officer. More information is available here.

The pages at www.englandathletics.org/disabilityathletics also give information on much more including our Guidance to Inclusive Practice for Race Organisers, and Guidance to Inclusive Practice for Competition Organisers.

England Athletics Online store Click here to visit the Official England Athletics online store. Wear official England Athletics clothing. All 'profits' made by England Athletics are reinvested into the development of athletics in England