I’ve ruff led feathers but I’ll win gold
YOU ONLY have to glance at Blaine Hunt to know he is full of confidence – not many men can pull off sporting a handlebar moustache, especially in the aerodynamic world of track cycling.
And after listening to the 30-year-old para–cyclist, that first impression is reinforced.
“I want to go to the Paralympics and I want to win gold. I want to be world champion. I want to rewrite the history books and see my name on world records,” says Hunt. That attitude is perhaps why, as Hunt puts it, he has “ruffled some feathers” with British Cycling.
Despite earning selection for GB for the World Championships in Rio last year – just two years after taking up cycling seriously – and winning bronze in the C5 1,000m ‘kilo’, British Cycling have refused to bring him on to the full para-cycling programme.
Londoner Hunt remains in a “limbo world” on the foundation programme, meaning payment for his training, equipment and coaching all comes out of his own pocket, leaving him up to his eyeballs in debt.
“After the Worlds, I thought there was no chance I wasn’t going to get on the programme. But the call never came,” says Hunt, a self-employed TV broadcast engineer at the time. “I’ve hit all the criteria to receive funding.
“I’ve upset the applecart because I told them I should be on the programme. I had to take out a big loan. It’s an arms race and whoever has the best equipment has that edge on you, so I put myself in a bit of a hole.”
Hunt, though, now has a 9-5 desk job to get him on an even keel financially, has a top-notch support team and has been training at the Lee Valley VeloPark before the National Track Championships in Manchester, which start tomorrow.
“I’m lucky to have the London velodrome, it’s like having my own personal track,” he says. “Everyone’s up in Manchester on the British Cycling programme. Nobody can see what I’m doing.
“I’m an unknown entity. I’m setting personal bests all the time, so I just have to carry that into the Nationals and state my claim for this year’s Worlds.”
Hunt also believes he has another advantage – he was not born with a disability.
He was “rugby, rugby, rugby” until, aged 15, he hyper-extended his knee, which kept dislocating until his “ligaments were hanging by a thread”. During surgery an artery in his leg was cut, leading to nine weeks in hospital, a year in a wheelchair, 20 operations in 10 years and nerve damage to his leg and ankle.
“Not having been born with a disability puts you in a different mindset to the person who was born with it,” he says. “I know what it feels like to sprint properly, to play rugby, to score a try. There’s no way I’d be able to do that now but I won’t stop until I come first. I want to be the best in the world.”
● Lee Valley VeloPark is the only place in the world where you can try all four cycling disciplines in one venue. Follow in the tyre tracks of Olympic champs as you ride the velodrome, BMX tracks, mountain bike trails or the road circuit. Go to visitleevalley. org.uk/velopark
My aim is to rewrite the history books