T42 200m gold - Richard Whitehead
23rd July 2013Men’s F42 discus final
Gold medal – Aled Davies 47.62m
I'm happy, I'm a double world champion with two golds so I can't complain. But I left my performance today to the last minute so that frustrated me a bit. But a win is a win, I'll take that.
I know I have a 50m throw in the tank, it is coming. I know the big throws are there so I just have to be patient, ride it out and I'm sure the throws will deliver when they want to.
I knew I had a good performance in me. That's the difference between now and London, coming into Lyon I knew what I was capable of doing. So coming in here I knew I could throw 15m in the shot, in training I have done. Same with the discus: I know I can throw 50m so I know there is a big one there. But I'm just happy that I can pull out big performances on the big stage, that's what it's all about.
Men’s T42 200m final
Gold medal – Richard Whitehead 24.95
It’s been a long two years really. This has been a culmination of lots of training on the track – yesterday I put out that fantastic performance, but conditions were tough today. For a double leg amputee the wind was tough, I had to scoop through the win – single leg amputees are biomechanically able to run better. That last 30 metres was about guts and determination as I’ve been suffering with a quad injury after breaking one of my blades last week, but I dug in deep and believed in myself.
“It’s about believing in yourself and not letting the team around you down. Keith Antoine has put a lot of his own personal time in, as has Liz Yelling and Tim Stevenson so those along with family and friends were the ones shouting for me.
I’m glad I could support that kind of goal and I’m sure we can nick a couple more. In New Zealand we got 12, so that’s obtainable. We’ve got some great performers to come – we’ve got the warrior that is Stephen Miller, Blakey (Paul Blake), who’s already won a gold and I’m really pleased with what the team’s done so far. It’s a building team – there are some really exciting youngsters in the likes of Sophie Hahn and Jade Jones. 2012 gave these athletes an insight of what competitive athletics is about.
That was for my daughter Zarah and fiancé Val, who is I’m sure was screaming at the TV with my mum and dad. That’s one of the toughest things I’ve done on the track – sometimes when energy levels are at zero, you’ve got to pull a performance out of nowhere.