IPC President praises sport at Stoke Mandeville Stadium
The president of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Sir Philip Craven has expressed his delight at visiting Stoke Mandeville Stadium today for the IPC Shooting World Cup.
Appearing at the World Cup event, Sir Philip was treated to a thrilling opening round to the competition which saw a Paralympic Champion defeated in a closely fought contest.
Image shows IPC President Sir Philip Craven (left) and WheelPower Chief Executive Martin McElhatton (right) outside Staoke Mandeville Stadium.
80 athletes from countries all around the world from San Marino to the USA and UAE will do battle on their journey to reach Rio 2016. A 25 strong GB squad includes Matt Skelhon who began shooting at Stoke Mandeville Stadium at WheelPower’s Inter Spinal Unit Games in 2006. Skelhon has since won a Paralympic gold in 2008 and is aiming for a clean sweep of European, world and Paralympic titles in 2016.
Sir Philip was quick to praise the competition, he said:
'The real first thing that I sensed was the passion and enthusiasm of the organisers, and the athletes too. But of course you don’t know that when they are concentrating like mad to keep calm and shoot accurately.'
The IPC President took the opportunity to relive his fond sporting memories including being trained by Paralympic founder Sir Ludwig Guttmann at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in the 1970s.
'Para sport was spread to the world from here, Stoke Mandeville is definitely the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.
'I think Buckinghamshire should continue to be proud of holding such important international events. If you think back to Sir Ludwig Guttmann and his small team promoting sport, wheelchair sport has been such a part of this community in Stoke Mandeville and town of Aylesbury.'
Sir Philip who has been at the helm of the organisation for 14 years, also competed for Great Britain from 1972 to 1998. He was in the same wheelchair basketball squad as WheelPower’s Chief Executive Martin McElhatton when the Paralympics were held at Stoke Mandeville Stadium. It is fitting that they could reunite at the Stadium today for the IPC Shooting World Cup.
