The British Wheelchair Athletics Association (BWAA) was set up in 1982 with the aim to give disabled people the chance to get involved in wheelchair athletics, specifically seated throwing. Since 1984 no major international sporting event that has included wheelchair athletics has taken place without representatives of the BWAA playing a part. Two of our members achieved Bronze medals in the 2012
Paralympic games in London. What do we do? Our athletes come from all over the UK once a month to train or compete together at Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Aylesbury. Our year is split into two halves:
October to April- Winter indoor training
May to September- Summer Grand Prix Competitions
We also have an additional warm weather training camp in Portugal in March. Wheelchair athletes compete in five field disciplines:
Shot
Discus
Javelin
Club
Pentathlon
The athletes use individually designed throwing frames for these events. These frames enable the athletes to use the same throwing equipment (javelins, discus, shot etc) as able bodied athletes. The only event unique to wheelchair athletics is the club. In this event a special wooden club is thrown using a technique similar to the discus. Athlete Developement:
Our commitment to the development of new athletes and coaches helps the BWAA remain one of the key organisations within the rapidly developing world of disability sport. The BWAA is fully committed to the British Wheelchair Sports Foundation development programme at Stoke Mandeville which each year includes the inter-spinal unit games and the National Junior games as well as junior and senior development camp
For more information please visit www.bwaa.co.uk
