gold for mickey bushell

03 September 2012

Britain won their fifth gold athletics medal of the Paralympics when Mickey Bushell (Fred Periac) dominated the T53 100m. Drawn in lane 5, he soon had a gap on the rest of the field and the gap grew as did the cheers throughout and he won by around three metres in a Paralympic record 14.75 as China took the other medals.

Bushell said, “The 100m is my main event, my strongest event and the one I wanted to win most. Conditions were perfect and it went better than I hoped. I think I got out second but after the first push I started to pull away and I was confident I could win.Gold was the only thing I wanted, it’s been a long, hard four years to get here. Last night I watched Dave Weir and I was bouncing off the walls; Dave has been massive for me as a team mate; he’s a fantastic guy and a great role model.

Other than the gold medal race, it was a very quiet evening with just two other Britons taking part.
Forty nine year-old newcomer Steve Osborne (Peter Eriksson) finished fifth in the T51 100m in 23.40, only 0.41 of a second away from bronze.

“I enjoyed it, I really did – I want some more. I want to keep going through to Rio. I’ve only been doing this a year and I think that this has come a bit early, but I enjoyed it.”

Dean Miller (Bud Baldaro) ran bravely in the T37 1500m and was in a medal position for much of the race but just faded on the last lap to finish seventh in 4:21.57 which was less than a second outside his lifetime PB.

He said, “round the back end, I just don't think I was going quick enough and I didn't have it when the other guys kicked past. I tried to battle, and tried to get someone on the line but I think I just missed him. It's just one of those days, it didn't go to plan. I'll be back for Rio though. The crowd were just incredible. It was so surreal. I kept hearing people say 'go on Dean', and I took a little look a couple of times and it was people I didn't know! It was a great experience, I'll definitely be back for more. The Paraympic games is amazing. I missed out four years ago with a stress fracture wheni was 18 and I thought it was the end of the world. So now to get here it's a dream.”