European Para OCR Championships - Race Review
This weekend marked an incredible milestone as Hungary hosted the first ever European Championship with a unique category for Para racers. Years in the planning, it was so exciting to see everything come together and see para athletes on the stage, competing for awards.
Event History
In 2019, I competed in the European Championships in Poland in a category for able-bodied athletes. While I finished near the top of the leaderboard, the journey to get to the championship was really challenging - to qualify was so tricky as I needed to finish in the top athletes, but with a significant disability and disadvantage. Regardless, I qualified and completed the courses with no adaptations or adjustments. This was when I looked at trying to make the necessary changes to allow other adaptive athletes to compete….that’s when the hard work started.
Classification and Rules
When looking at a system for para athletes to compete, it was important to consider a fair system for all athletes - this required a strict classification criteria and rules. With a few others, we wrote the classification criteria, which can be seen here. It was clear that we wanted para athletes to have the opportunity to race but also to show the world what para athletes can achieve, therefore no adjustments were needed for the course design.
The OCR European Championships - Short Course
The build-up to the championships was really exciting with lots of phone and video calls as we prepared to look at the rules once again. We had decided that para athletes were to be given 5 wristbands instead of 3, to compensate for obstacles which may not be accessible for those with a disability. Because of the small number of para athletes, all classes were against one another - we were just searching for the top para OCR athlete.
As I stood on the start line, I was incredibly nervous. It was incredibly humid and I felt really quite emotional to be at an event which had been years in the making. The focus of this event was mostly to promote Para OCR for others to be involved but also to see who was the top athlete in Europe.
My race plan was simple - race like your life depends on it! As we started, my main competitor (the incredible John De Haan, a hand amputee) went off like a rocket. As we approached the first obstacle, I was meters behind him. Looking back at my race pace, we were running a 4:18 minute mile - no wonder I was absolutely gassed!
Once the first few obstacles were completed, I was in front and my plan was to maintain the lead. A few silly mistakes later, I had lost one of my bands and was absolutely dripping and exhausted with the heat and humidity. I felt like I had been racing forever but it had only been for about 15 minutes at this point. My heart rate rocketed to 196 and I felt like I was going to throw up!
I had a large lead at this stage so I took my step off the pedal and relaxed into the pace, keeping enough energy for the larger obstacles to come up. We hit some tricky terrain (for a running blade) but I was still in the lead. As we hit the final section, I was feeling confident but didn’t want to get too cocky. I had lost a few bands and would need to do a penalty lap, which included running a loop with a huge (full) jerry can, where I knew I would be slower than my main competitor. After one lap, I dropped the can and sprinted off to the finish line to claim my first place. Had I really just done it? Was I really the European Champion? I rushed through the finishing pen and after a few minutes, returned to the finish line to see John just passing through a few minutes later.
Looking at my results, I would have finished 16th in my age category, which I am incredibly proud of.
The Standard Course
Coming off on a win from Friday’s race, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to maintain the pace that I did for the short course - it was unsustainable for a longer distance. Just before the race started, John and I had discussed how the race went and given my win on the Friday with our race, we decided to run the standard course together. This then meant that I would allow him to get the Gold medal and myself the silver (assuming another para athlete didn’t overtake us). We wanted to showcase the power of para athletes, which to me was more important than achieving a Gold or Silver medal.
We ran the course together and I can honestly say that it was such an honor to run with such an incredibly talented athlete, competitor and friend. As we approached the final penalty loops, I stayed next to him and as we set them down at the same time, we sprint finished with him crossing the line just seconds before me - what a show for what para athletes can achieve.
Moving Forward
Looking ahead, we have the OCR World Championships in September in Belgium where we will have the chance to race once again but this time in all four events i.e. 100m, short, standard and team courses.
If you are a para athlete and you would like to compete, please do get in touch with myself or your national OCR federation. As we push the sport and have more athletes involved, we will be able to have athletes in each category and keep the momentum coming for more events.
If you’re based in the UK, you can get in touch with British Obstacle Sports
