Four short-listed for Para Athlete of Year

Monday 30th November 2015

Three athletes at IPC World Champs won six medals – Jo Butterfield, Maria Lyle and Sammi Kinghorn

Four athletes have been short-listed for the Scottish Para Athlete of the Year award.

Three females shared six medals at the IPC World Champs in Doha in track and field while marathon runner Derek Rae joins Jo Butterfield, Maria Lyle and Sammi Kinghorn.

The quartet are in contention for the Scottish Para Athlete of the Year, which will be announced by scottishathletics early in 2016.

And exciting plans are in place for the winner to be presented with the Scottish Para title at the Glasgow International Grand Prix on Saturday 20 February at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow.

It has been another excellent year for Scottish Para athletes competing at a high level and that is reflected in the short-list.

‘I commend the four athletes on being short-listed for this award because once again the standard is very high for one of our accolades,’ said Rodger Harkins, director of coaching with scottishathletics.

‘If you look at each of them, they have performed where it matters with good results on a world stage. We’ve seen that in Doha and from Derek Rae in London.’

Here are the four athletes and their achievements in 2015 (at the IPC World Champs in Doha for the track and field trio):

Jo Butterfield: gold in club throw (Championship record) and bronze in discus.

Maria Lyle: gold medal (part of World record breaking relay team and running the difficult second leg as a T35 among T37/38s) and two silvers, both in European Record times

Sammi Kinghorn: bronze in 200m, fifth in 100m, sixth in 400m, seventh in 800m in big PB of 1.54 close to medals in a bunch finish

Derek Rae: fifth place in IPC World Champs held in London in April

All at scottishathletics firmly congratulations our four short-listed athletes, their families and their coaches on fine performances during 2015. Well done, too, to the clubs involved in helping these Para athletes develop their potential.