Hannah Cockroft Column

THE first ever Muller Para Track Grand Prix went really, really well – especially as we organised the whole thing in six weeks! We had 60 athletes competing in Kirkby, loads of people spectating and a world record broken there as well, which was pretty cool.

It was also nice to get out of my own bed on a race morning for the first time ever. Muller were fantastic. We had yoghurts, foam fingers and t-shirts everywhere, and even had the ‘Muller-licious Moment of the Day’ with someone getting some prize money at the end of it, which is pretty unusual at para events and something quite special. We’ve had wonderful feedback and positive comments about the day and I’m already being asked when we are planning to do it next year.

I’m not too sure if I can do it again – it was a massive learning curve for me. When we had this idea of putting a race meet on we didn’t really know what went into a race meet to be honest. There were so many parts of it that we just didn’t consider, like licences, getting the officials, getting insurance and so on. You think you can just book a track and that’s it, but it didn’t work out like that. We were constantly having to look for guidance throughout the whole organisation process.

We know all that now, so if we were to do it again we’ve got the building blocks in place and know how involved it is. Most importantly, we would probably give ourselves more than six weeks to organise it! Despite all that, we had a great mixture of athletes and it was nice to be up north, which was the main point of it all. Everyone was happy and Muller made everyone feel a part of it – it was a fantastic day although I was relieved when it was done!

I could do with a rest now, but the GB squad for the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai was announced last week and I’ve got plenty of hard work to do before November 7.

I’ve had a really good season and am back to number one in the world in both my distances – the 100m and 800m – which is quite a nice place to be. It’s all about making sure I’m in prime condition for that now. We’re going to Spain for two weeks just before the championships to fully focus on training and get some warm weather training in. Going from November in England to November in Dubai is going to be quite a jump if not!

There are quite a lot of new names on the British team so I’m looking forward to meeting them. Hopefully the more experienced of us can encourage and help the newer people to come through and show what they can do.

This will be my fifth world championships and it’s always nice to see the team growing and developing. We’re without one or two big names who will be missed, but that gives someone else a stage to step up and show that they can perform at the highest level. It will be great to welcome them and we might have a few new champions to get excited about.

It makes you think. If we’re bringing through so many new names then what talent is coming through in other countries? What girls in my events do I not know about? That gives you that little extra push in the final weeks of training, to do everything you can to be in the best possible shape. This is about the time when new names start coming out and trying to qualify for the next Paralympic Games. It’s exciting and should make for a fantastic World Champs.•

Irwin Mitchell is proud to sponsor Hannah Cockroft’s column in Agility Magazine. www.irwinmitchell.com