London to bid for 2019 Paras
RETURN IS ‘NO-BRAINER’ SAY STARS
BRITISH officials will today declare their intention to launch an official bid to bring the World Para Athletics Championships back to London in 2019.
The International Paralympic Committee have already held extensive talks with another potential host city, but the remarkable crowds of the past 10 days in London mean the world governing body are expected to favour a quick return to Britain.
Attendances exceeded 20,000 for the weekend sessions and more than 305,000 tickets were sold for the championships.
London’s bid by the British Paralympic Association and UK Athletics must be received by the beginning of September.
Last night Ed Warner, the cochair of the London 2017 organisers, said that anybody who opposed another World Championships in London in two years’ time ‘must have a heart of ice’.
Warner also argued that the championships would cost just one-fiftieth of England’s bid for the 2022 Commonwealth Games — estimated to cost more than £500million.
Warner said: ‘I think you would get 50 of these for the cost of one Commonwealth Games. This gives all athletes from around the world time to fulfil their preparations for Tokyo 2020. If we look at the benefits for London, the Paralympic movement and UK Athletics, you’d need to have a heart of ice not to want to do it.’
The appetite is shared by leading athletes, with Hannah Cockroft, who won three medals in the past week, describing it as a ‘no-brainer’.
Warner is looking to the Government for support, and there is also some private investment interest. Penny Mordaunt, Minister of State for Disabled People, is understood to be supportive.
A joyous championships for Britain were rounded off by a second gold medal for Sammi Kinghorn, as she triumphed in the women’s T53 100metres.
Kinghorn, who has been paralysed from the waist down since an accident at the age of 14, said: ‘I did genuinely think my life would be spent in bed, so to be double world champion is unbelievable.’
There were silver medals yesterday for Polly Maton in the T47 long jump, Jordan Howe in the T35m 100m and Mickey Bushell in the T53 100m. Britain ended the championships with 18 golds, eight silvers and 13 bronze, exceeding the UK Sport target of 26-30 medals.