From junior to elite athlete: Ben Rowlings tells his story before Typhoo Nationals
Over 240 of the country’s finest young disabled athletes will be going for gold in Coventry this weekend (27 and 28 June) at the Typhoo National Junior Athletics Championships. One of those competing is top British wheelchair athlete, Ben Rowlings. Here, he tells his story from being a young beginner to a potential international champion.
The Typhoo National Junior Athletics Championships is an annual event. It is one of the highlights in the disability sports calendar and many elite disabled athletes began their own success stories at this prestigious event.
One of them is Ben Rowlings, a wheelchair athlete who competes in the T34 classification (athletes with Cerebral Palsy).
In 2012, Ben featured in our Pass the Baton poster campaign. Then, Ben was a 16 year old junior athlete, who came through the Playground to Podium Initiative and the EFDS events programme, Disability Sport Events.
During the 2012 campaign, Ben said:
“Sport changed my life and has made me the person I am today. I can't wait for the next few years and possibly Rio! EFDS has been brilliant. I've been introduced to many sports via the Playground to Podium days. Also, I’ve had access to loads of different competitions, from beginner level upwards, until I was able to choose which one suited me best”.
Now 19, Ben has his sights set on the World Championships in Doha in October, followed by the Paralympics in Rio 2016.
From Shropshire. he's an experienced racer even though still a teenager. Ben traces a lot of his success back to progress made at regional and national events.
Ben told the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS):
“At the first National event I went to, I can remember there being a lot more of a crowd that I was used to. Usually just parents and support staff would be standing at the side, but there were many more athletes in attendance. It was a big occasion for me, having travelled from a small country town.”
Ben will be competing on Sunday, but the starting gun goes off for the first race at 10am on Saturday at the University of Warwick Athletics Track in Coventry.
Competitors from around the country will take part. Amongst them, athletes wanting to develop their talent and be successful in their own individual events. This Championships is very much about participation as well as gold medals.
For Ben, who recently broke a handful of British records at a meeting in Switzerland and is now ranked number two in the world, his sporting journey actually began in the swimming pool.
Ben says he has always had a competitive streak.
“I was always a really sporty kid, but I could never run properly – it was always a bit of a waddle. All my friends at school would play football and I would have to go in goal. But I was always a competitive kid and took up swimming, and ended up competing in some National championships.”
"I’ve just got better and better"
An unusual allergy meant he had to give up swimming.
“I then found out I was allergic to chlorine, so swimming was obviously not the best sport for me! I used to come out of the pool sneezing, with bloodshot eyes. So I left swimming aged 15, then my athletics coach, Job King, took me to an athletics talent identification day, and since then I’ve just got better and better.”
The improvement on the track is the result of some serious dedication, culminating in a current regime of three training sessions a day, six days a week. And Ben says that level of commitment is vital if he is to achieve his goal of winning medals on the track for his country.
“I have improved simply through sheer hard work. When I first started wheelchair racing I was rubbish, barely able to complete 100m. But the sport just had that something a little bit different - it was exciting as it was all about going really, really quick, as close to the ground as is humanly possible.
“Wheelchair racing is not something that anyone is naturally gifted at, as it’s so different to any other sport. You just have to keep at it.”
Ben also heaps praise on the volunteers who support the events he attends, as well as the sponsors that make it easier for him to commit to sport as a career.
“Sponsorship is huge. Without my sponsors I’d have no chance of developing, no chance of being able to train and to be the best I and physically be, and to attend all the championships.
“Having a big company like Typhoo sponsoring this event at the weekend just allows a lot more scope and a lot more opportunities to expand the event, to get more people in.
“And without volunteers there wouldn’t be competitions or events to go to. They are a huge part of any competition – go to any event worldwide and volunteers will be there. Without them, it wouldn’t work. They are the mesh holding everything together.”
So what would Ben say to those competing this weekend? What would his advice be to those who may well be starting out on a path- possibly leading to future international events, and, who knows, even World Championships and Paralympics?
“It’s great to see the way people overcome different obstacles. When people are first starting out there are so many different challenges you have to come through, just to get to start racing and in order to reach something like a Nationals.
“Sport for disabled people is growing and growing, and organisations like EFDS are a big part of that- helping people to get going.
“If you want to see the next big thing, Nationals like these are where things get started. A lot of people will develop from here on.”
The Typhoo National Junior Athletics Championships 2015 take place on 27 and 28 June from 10am at the University of Warwick athletics track, Coventry, CV4 7AL. Join in the conversation at #SportsForAll
