European Indoor Deaf Athletics Championships
20 March 2004
On 17-20 March 2004, 6 male and 7 female DUKA athletes competed at the 2nd European Indoor Deaf Athletics Championships, in Sofia, Bulgaria. For many of these athletes, this was the first ever time they had competed indoors, so naturally there was mixture of nervousness and excitement.
The championship was opened with the women's 60m and 21-year-old Sheila Ladu became GB's first ever deaf 60m indoor female athlete. Unfortunately she was affected by the competitor next to her who had a hearing aid on which was not allowed. Despite giving her all, she missed semi-final qualification by a fraction of a second. Her colleague, 16-year-old Jessica Everhurst, did run a bit faster to make it through to the semi-final where she unluckily missed out on final qualification by a hairsbreadth.
The men performed identically to the women, with only 21-year-old Jonathan Nelson pulling through to the semi-final despite shin split pains. His colleague Jason Steadman was very unlucky to be in the same race as the defending German European Indoor 60m Champion. After a shaky start, he fought all the way to the finishing line, only to narrowly miss the semi-final by a fingertip. The middle distance runners did very well to make it through to the finals in their events.
Super 16-year-old Lauren Peffers proved her outdoor European 800m title was no fluke by easily running away with the 800m Indoor Gold. This was the first time an outdoor champion has won the indoor equivalent. World mile record holder Candy Hawkins managed to fight her way to a Bronze medal, after being trapped for most of the race.
The 1500m, was very similar to the 800m, but with Lauren being boxed-in, with only 150m to go, she could find no escape route to grab a medal. Wonder Woman Candy exhibited her overall strength, by bursting from the back to grab a Silver medal. Had she put her foot down a bit earlier, Gold would her been hers, but equally satisfactory was the Silver medal she nicked from under the nose of the Russian who had set the pace for most of the race.
The men's middle distances were equally exciting and dramatic. Again 16-year-old Douglas Rathey making his debut, showed what a promising middle distance runner he would be.
Paired against the Deaflympic, European indoor and outdoor Champion, Soto Javi, Douglas had no fear! He led the field from start to finish to win the 800m heats in a new PB of 2:02.15! Unfortunately, Douglas had to race in the 1500m final before the 800m final in a short space of time.
Despite leading again for most of the race, a tactical error meant that when he slowed down to judge the correct pace, others surprisingly upped the pace and by then Douglas was left with too much to do. His fight for a medal completely drained him. It wasn't long before the 800m semis.
Somehow, Doug seemed to have reserved energy. Going on in a blistering pace, he covered the first 200m in 27 sec. Fighting hard to build up a lead in the hope that he may be able to hold on against the older and more experienced international opposition, his legs sadly gave out and was caught within touching distance of the finish line and finished fourth, just a place off the a final appearance.
Doug's team mate in the middle distance events - 16-year-old Saul Allison, fought equally hard, but his lack of domestic indoor competition was to prove too much for him to handle.
All in all, he gave it his best shots and learnt about the high standard of international deaf competitions.
The field events were very entertaining-with our women (Alexandra Dury, Sandra Campbell and Joanne Davison) battling hard all the way towards several PBs, which was very encouraging.
Despite both the women's and men's 4x400m relay teams being beset by injuries, they did their best and were by no means disgraced. This was the first time GB has had a relay squad since 1993 World Deaf Games in Sofia.
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