Former middle distance runner Pete Wyman has been appointed UK Athletics’ new Performance Coach for wheelchair athletics.
The 42-year-old, who moves from his current post as Development Manager at the Merseyside Sports Partnership in January, said he can’t wait to take up the challenging new role.
“I’m very excited about it,” he said. “I’ve been coaching wheelchair athletes on a voluntary basis for more than 16 years, so to do it as a full-time job will be both exciting and challenging. I’ll have to raise my game, but I’m well up for it.”
Wyman will be in charge of overseeing the coaching of British wheelchair athletes on UK Athletics’ World Class Podium and World Class Development programmes.
As well as helping those athletes to develop their skills, his role will also include ‘talent scouting’ for the next generation of wheelchair racers.
Among his main challenges are preparing athletes for both the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Paralympic Games.
“We’ve got an existing group of very good athletes, and we now need to raise the standards of those up and coming new athletes,” he said.
“I’m really looking forward to being part of the team that’s working with athletes,” added Wyman.
Wyman will be working directly with Tim Jones, Senior Performance Manager for Disability at UK Athletics, and Kathryn Periac, Performance Manager Disability – Throws and Wheelchair Racing.
A former 800m and 1500m runner, Wyman was Welsh champion over the shorter distance in 1989.
He was a member of Great Britain’s athletics coaching team at the Barcelona 1992 Paralympic Games, coaching cerebral palsy athletes. He also coached disability athletes in the lead-in to the Atlanta 1996 Paralympic Games.
Wyman has regularly worked with Shelly Woods – who won a bronze medal for the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland team in the T54 marathon at the Assen 2006 Athletics World Championships. Shelly’s main coach is Australian Andrew Dawes.
Wyman’s present role as Development Manager of the Merseyside Sports Partnership involves helping to ensure sports can develop and flourish in Merseyside, and facilitating coach education and training opportunity for disability sport in the area.
He is also chairman of the North West Disability Athletics Development Association, which brings together a wide range of individuals and organisations – including club coaches, national disability sports organisations, England Athletics and the English Federation of Disability Sport.
The North West Disability Athletics Development Association won the coveted Athletics Partnership of the Year Award at the UK Club Awards a week ago.
Wyman has also organised an annual wheelchair racing meeting at Kirkby for the last 10 years.
There are three wheelchair racers on UK Athletics’ World Class Podium Programme – Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, David Weir and Shelly Woods – and five on the Development Programme – Brian Alldis, Mickey Bushell, Karl Nicholson, Tushar Patel and Anne Wafula-Strike.
