Meet Libby Clegg

It’s been a fantastic year for Libby Clegg (16) who is registered blind and attends The Royal Blind School.  Whilst studying for her exams, Libby has also been training hard at her favourite hobby – athletics. 

Following an excellent performance this year at the IPC World Championships in Assen, Libby stepped up to Podium.  At the age of 16, she is currently the youngest athlete to be funded by the World Class Podium Plan from either able-bodies or disability athletics, and the support is timely recognition following her silver medal over the T12 200m.  In this her first major international Libby appeared to have repeated the feat over 100 metres but sadly her guide was judged to have crossed the line before her. As Libby is registered legally blind, she runs with a guide runner called Lincoln and they run with a tie that keeps them together, at 5cm apart.

Now Libby has been nominated for the Young Sports Personality of the Year.  The decision will be announced on 10th December and in November we caught up with Libby at school to find out a little more about this shining star.

Libby, tell us a little bit about yourself?

‘Hi.  Well I live with my mum and dad and have two brothers and a sister:  James, Stephen and Felicity, who are all really excited about my achievements this year.  It is difficult fitting school work around training and training around school work because I don’t really have a lot of time to myself.  Therefore I have to try and manage my time really well.  I’m still not very good at that and my homework is normally in late!  Wednesday and Friday are my free nights, and I love to go Salsa dancing on a Friday night, so really it’s only Wednesday.  I’ve also got a boyfriend, my close friends and would like to be a Criminologist when I leave school, so juggling everything is really, really difficult.’

What has been your career highlight so far? 

‘It has to be the World Championships.  I came second in the 200m and broke my personal bests in the heats, semi-final and final.  So I was really, really pleased with that and surprised a lot of people.  In the 100m I would have come second but my guide runner’s chest went in front of me so I was disqualified.’

What are you looking forward to?

‘I’ve actually been nominated for a couple of awards so I am looking forward to these announcements and I’m training hard to qualify for the Beijing Paralympic Games, which will be held in 2008.  I will hopefully qualify next year and stand a good chance of getting through based on my performance this year.  I love running - it’s a great way to relieve stress and tension and makes me feel better about myself.  It’s been a fantastic year so far and I hopemy success and achievements will give inspiration to others to believe in their dreams and follow their ambitions.’

The Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, will be held from 6th-17th September 2008 at the Beijing National Stadium, which is also become known as the bird's nest.  This impressive stadium will be the main track and field stadium as well as hosting the Opening and Closing ceremonies.  We wish you the very best of luck in qualifying for the games, Libby and we’ll keep track of Libby’s progress.