Strath athletes boost Scottish success at the London 2012 Paralympics
Strath athletes Dave Smith and Craig MacLean’s gold medals have helped Scottish athletes competing at the London 2012 Paralympics eclipse the country’s achievements in Beijing four years ago.
Thirty-four-year-old Smith, from Aviemore, was a member of ParalympicsGB’s mixed cox adaptive four rowing team which won the 1km event on Sunday at Eton Dorney.
MacLean, 41, from Grantown, a former Olympic silver medal winner, won gold on a tandem with partially sighted Anthony Kappes in the cycling sprint final at the Velodrome on Sunday.
As of Tuesday the Scots had already won 10 medals, better than what the nation’s Paralympic athletes achieved in China.
Mike Whittingham, Director of High Performance at the sportscotland institute of sport, commented: “The Scottish athletes in ParalympicsGB have clearly been inspired by competing in a home Games and as a result have produced some world-class performances.
“To win 10 medals – including three golds – with five days still remaining is a phenomenal achievement, and with world records, personal bests, and Paralympics records being broken along the way it shows the Scots have really produced their best when it mattered most.
“This success can be attributed to the talent of the athletes, their coaches and support teams, the work of the sports’ governing bodies, sportscotland, and Scottish Disability Sport, as well as the quality of the programmes that our athletes have been on in Scotland, across the UK, and elsewhere.
“The unprecedented support which the London 2012 Paralympics received has given the athletes a tremendous platform for building towards Glasgow 2014, where they will look to replicate these terrific performances.”
There are 27 Scots in the ParalympicsGB team out of 300, which equates to 9% of the team and is the largest Scottish representation since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
For more about Dave and Craig’s fantastic exploits see tomorrow’s Strathy
