Victories and photos from The Great South Run

On another gloriously sunny day, over 120 runners took part in the Great South Run in October for Get Kids Going! Below are just a few pictures from the day.

Once again Get Kids Going! wheelchair athlete, David Weir, put in a spectacular performance and won the men's race.

David finished in 35 minutes 15 seconds, over two minutes ahead of Get Kids Going!'s Tushar Patel, who came second and with the 2004 winner Kenny Herriot back in third position.

David and Tushar are pictured on the awards podium with the Mayor of Portsmouth




We also see Tushar later with the GB wheelchair squad coach, Get Kids Going!'s Paul Hunt (left) and Jane:

Shelly Woods also gave a great performance and won the women's race. Shelly Woods achieved a time of 44 minutes, 1 second, over the 10-mile course, and is seen below triumphantly crossing the finishing line.

Shelly is also pictured below with Jane:

Shelly then picked up her medal from the Mayor of Portsmouth




The rest our runners looked forward to a well deserved massage in the Get Kids Going! marquee at the end of the race:

We'd like to offer our congratulations and thanks to all the runners who took part in the race for us. If you would like to enter the Great South Run 2009 please visit our website and apply online.

Photos from the Great North Run

Over 700 runners took part in the 25th Great North Run in September for Get Kids Going! Below are just a few pictures from the day.

Our first picture above shows our youngest runner, five year old Sophie Stephenson with the Get Kids Going cheering team at the Junior Great North Run on Saturday 17th September.

You have already seen our wheelchair athletes in the previous story, but other wheelchair athletes from Get Kids Going! did not let the side down even if they weren't in the top 3 or four positions.

Steve Edwards is pictured below:

We also had some great fancy dress runners:

From mother and daughter team, Alexandra and Sue Lucas

To Graham Hadfield as a dragon, pictured below with Jane:

More runners were snapped by the BBC throughout the day

At the end of the race runners congregated outside the Get Kids Going! marquee where a queue began for the well earned and well deserved massages.

Here are some runners having their massages:

We'd like to offer our congratulations and thanks to all the runners who took part in the race for us. If you would like to enter the 2009 Great North Run please visit our website and apply online.

Shelly & David set new course records at the Great North Run

Get Kids Going's top wheelchair athletes, David Weir and Shelly Woods set new British and course records to win the Great North Run wheelchair races on the 18th September.


David Weir, who last won the Great North Run in 2003, achieved an impressive 42 minutes 35 seconds over the 13.1 mile course to beat David Holding's previous record of 44.25.

Get Kids Going's Tushar Patel was second, almost two minutes back, with German Ralph Brunner third.

Our very own Shelly Woods also finished in the record time of 50 minutes 7 seconds, beating our Vice President Dame Tanni Grey Thompson's record of 52.17.

Tanni came 5th in the race.

Shelly beat Francesca Porcellato by 39 seconds to win the event.


Shelly raced much of the course with coach Jason Gill, and had finished second to Francesca in the London Marathon and also at the Great Manchester Run but we wish her the best of luck as she is now set to race in the Berlin Marathon on the 25th September.

We'd like to send congratulations from everyone at Get Kids Going! to David and Shelley who were also interviewed live on BBC TV by Sue Barker.

Tushar Patel, came 2nd. Brian Alldis also did extremely well and came fifth in the senior men's race with a time of 46.10 minutes

We'd like to offer our congratulations to our entire wheelchair team and thanks to all the runners who took part in the race for us. If you would like to enter the 2009 Great North Run please visit our website and apply online.

Amazing photos from our brave Parachute jumpers

Over 30,000 people make their first parachute jump each year, but over ten times that amount think about doing one. But when you see the excitement on the faces of some of our skydivers, hopefully you will be tempted to join them.


Jenny Robbins and Jane Finlay called themselves our “Golden Oldies” and show that you’re never too old to make the plunge:

Jane said: “The jump was fantastic! An amazing experience. I am delighted to have done it for Get Kids Going - a great charity - and our fundraising might get someone to the 2012 Olympics!”

Jane and Jenny have raised an amazing £3,000 from their tandem Parachute jumps which they completed at the Netheravon Parachute centre near Salisbury.

Jenny who works at the Cranmore Prep school in Leatherhead sent round a picture of the skydive after the event to prove she had done it and the money came pouring in.

Meanwhile Derek Barrett, Marco Giudice and Jonathon Silva decided to do solo parachute jumps which involved a two day adventure at the London Parachute Centre in High Wycombe.

Our wheelchair athletes on Blue Peter

Mickey Bushell, David Weir, Tushar Patel, Shelly Woods and Brian Alldis were five out of seven wheelchair athletes who set off to re-create some of the speeds experienced at the Tunnel 2K race and were filmed by the BBC's Blue Peter.


In an earlier piece Shelly and Mickey displayed their skills by navigating around giant bean bags in the famous Blue Peter studios in West London.

In the actual 2K Tunnel race Mickey came 17th and completed the course in 8 minutes and three seconds. The winner was Jeff Adams, from Canada, coming in at four minutes 40.1 seconds through the tunnel, he beat our very own David Weir into second place.

However, Tushar Patel clocked the course's fastest speed of 41.4mph.

Australian Eliza Stankovic won the women's event with Get Kids Going! Shelly Woods second and our vice president Dame Tanni Grey Thompson came third.

In the mock race at the BBC, Tushar also came in just slightly ahead of David Weir.

If you would like to see a video of the Blue Peter story, click here.

More Golds for David Weir

David scored a double victory in the 200m wheelchair demonstration race and he also won the 100m race on the 14th August.


"I can't believe it, to be the winner here in two events," said David.

"I've been working on my work around the bends although I didn't get as good a start as I wanted."

We wish David every success when he takes part in the European Open Paralympic Championships, which begin next week in Espoo, Finland.

"I'll be racing the same guys again at the European Championships which will be tough as the track is slower but the support I had at Helsinki was fantastic," he added.

Get Kids Going! at the World's Largest Triathlon

The two day event was held at London's Excel Centre, the Docklands, around Westminster and Canary Wharf.


A Get Kids Going! wheelchair team also competed in the triathlon made up of our wheelchair athletes - Mickey Bushell, Brian Alldis and Kevin Ward. David Butler from the London Fitness Centre did the cycle leg of the event for Mickey, which was a tremendous achievement as he was part of the L'Etape du Tour team only two weeks earlier, and Jennifer Hall did the swim for the entire wheelchair team.

If you feel like taking part in either of these challenges in The London Triathlon in 2009 or the London Duathlon, please get in touch and we'll send you further details. Please apply online at http://www.getkidsgoing.com/applynow.htm

More records broken at World Junior Championships

The first IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation) World Junior Championships was held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium on 6th & 7th July 2005. Once again Get Kids Going! wheelchair athletes who formed a major part of the Great British (GB) squad, gave outstanding performances.


Nathan Stephens from Bridgend was the dominant figure in the under-18 field events, winning the shot, discus and javelin titles.

Sarah Loughran enjoyed double success, taking the under-21 sprint and middle-distance titles.

Mickey Bushell won the under-16 combined sprints (100 and 200m) crown. Coach, Paul Hunt, an inspiring Get Kids Going! athlete reported: “The 200m was the first event on the 7th, again Mickey had an early start, but a gust of wind on the bend helped his opposition go past, Mickey closed the gap down the home straight but ran out distance to take them he finished 3rd with a time of 31.95 sec. This was enough to earn Mickey the under 16's world Sprints championship.”

Sam Scott of Wales won the under-16 javelin and discus with a new World records for both events.

Brian Alldis, who was named in the GB team for the European Championships in Finland next month, finished second in his events to Switzerland's Marcel Hug.

Paul Hunt, provided a brilliant report of the track events and told how the team heard an exciting announcement on the 6th:

“Everyone made their way to the café to wait for the 2012 announcement. Thankfully it was the decision we all dreamed of… London hosting the Olympics and Paralympics in 2012. Everyone cheered - it was great to see so many happy faces.”

“Personally I would like to congratulate the whole Great Britain team in making the competition a great success for the country. I endeavour to make the team bigger for next year's event.”

Louise Hunt increases her world ranking in wheelchair tennis

She was part of the World Cup team squad in Holland in July, and Louise played extremely well and was very happy to beat one of the Dutch male players in a 3rd set tie break.


She also attended the Dutch Open and performed very well. Unfortunately she was drawn against the number one seed in her 1st match, but she had more success in her doubles games.

Louise was in The 16th British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships last week, but was knocked out by the World number four Dutch player, however, she still managed to achieve 4 deuces.

Louise’s mum Linda said: “On the 8th August, we spent the day at the Stoke Mandeville track with Tanni Grey-Thompson, her mentor, which was fantastic as she taught Louise a huge amount, especially on her pushing technique. She also set up Louise’s racing chair differently, which we did not know how to do, and it is now much more comfortable and gives a much better style.

“This was televised and shown on Central News. They also did a live radio interview, so all in all an exciting day.”