Wheelchair marathon gold for athlete shot in the spine
THE English athlete who won gold in the Commonwealth Games wheelchair marathon was paralysed by a gamekeeper’s assistant who shot him after suspecting him of poaching.
Johnboy Smith was 16 when he and some friends stumbled on ‘the wrong farm at the wrong time’ and a bullet hit their car and went into his spine.
Smith turned his focus to distance wheelchair racing, training with sixtime Paralympic champion David
Weir. Smith, 32, was trailing his legendary England team-mate by more than 90 seconds in Saturday’s race, only for Weir, 43, to suffer a puncture with six miles to go.
The man who shot Smith in the grounds of a stately home near Tonbridge, Kent, hailed the gold medal.
Paul Jeffrey, 51, who was jailed for grievous bodily harm, told the Daily Mail: ‘I regret what happened. If he’s gone on to do something good with his life, I’m really pleased.’