Pupils from a Bristol school were put through their paces by one of Team GB's most charismatic paralympians yesterday.
Ade Adepitan MBE won bronze at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens with the British basketball team and has graced TV screens in various acting and presenting roles since. And with his striking dreadlocks, broad grin and tales of daring-do, he held a captive audience at Elmlea Junior school before showing them some tricks.
The retired athlete has been in a wheelchair since contracting polio aged three and hopes to inspire the next generation of sportsmen to break down barriers both in and out of sport.
Elmlea won the visit through a Lloyds TSB-sponsored competition after convincing judges with a 100-word reason why they should be selected.
Head of PE Katie Atkins said: "We do a lot of sport and encourage students to try all sorts of sports. We try to be very inclusive. It's really all to do with achieving your goals and it's not just for the children with special needs."
Head teacher Clare Galliers described the visit as "very inspirational" for the youngsters.
"We hope the kids get the message that disability is no barrier," she said.
Adepitan talked to the students before holding workshops alongside Lloyds TSB "local hero" Emily Hollis, one of the UK's up and coming badminton stars. Hollis, 16, from Congresbury is ranked 5th in the country and has her sights set on the 2016 Olympics. "I never had anybody like Ade come to my school when I was their age," she said. "He's very inspiring."
Charlotte Higgins, 11, who dreams of representing her country at eventing had her first sight of an Olympic medal, while Robbie McCulloch, 10, was amazed that Adepitan had scaled a volcano.
Adepitan said: "If they can just take one thing, one message, maybe 'never give up', something that can open up a little seed of light inside them, then I'll be very happy."
Bristol Rugby stalwart Mark Regan is out for a month with a torn ligament in his foot but insists his latest injury set-back does not spell the start of his retirement.
Regan, who has announced his intention to retire at the end of the season, had fought back to fitness to feature for the full 80 minutes in a spirited battle at the Memorial Stadium against Leicester Tigers last Friday night.
And he marked his 200th Premiership appearance by playing on to the final whistle despite tearing a ligament.
"I felt something go in my foot and I didn't think much of it at the time," he said.
That 'something' proved to be a one-and-a-half centimetre tear, revealed by an ultrasound scan on Monday afternoon.
The World Cup winner is now confined once more to the physio's room rather than training with his teammates in the spring sunshine.
"I'm having full-on treatment twice a day and I have been on the rowing machine and on the bike," said Regan. "So I'm not a happy chappy as the blokes are all out in the sun."
Bristol Rugby led at half-time against Leicester but fell foul once again to a late score, suffering a 23-17 defeat, the latest set back in their slide towards what is almost certain relegation from the Guinness Premiership.
"Always believe," said Regan, eager to defend Bristol's top-flight tenure for as long as he can.
"There's a little bit of a spring in our step (after that performance). We're not mathematically relegated yet.
"I'm out for three or four weeks so I'm aiming for Wasps at home. I can still play a part but I'm pretty gutted.
"I'll be back for Wasps."
A new feature on This Is Bristol is 'Friday fun', an idle glance at some light-hearted findings on the wonderful world of the internet which may or may not have any connection with Bristol.
The product of being placed in front of the world's most effective communication device and being expected to ignore it is too much for some at Evening Post HQ and so in this weekly article we will endeavour to share some of the fruits of our browsing.
Why work when you can be distracted by:
A musical tribute to former Bristol Rovers striker Bobby Zamora. He may not have played a full 90 minutes for the Pirates first-team but he notched 90 goals in 117 starts for Brighton before breaking into the Premier League with Spurs, West Ham, and now Fulham, incurring some £6.4million in transfer fees in the process. That's something to sing about.
The marvellous archive of football trickery on YouTube, even if it has been ever so slighty computer assisted:
Bristol Rovers fans will be hoping for the sort of performance tonight against Brighton that left a young Brian Clough spitting with rage.
The legendary manager suffered his first defeat in charge of the Seagulls at the hands of Bristol Rovers, Pirates' boss Don Megson masterminding an 8-2 victory on the south coast.
Clough had led Derby County from the second division to the first division title in 1971-72 and took them to the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1972-73 but left the following season after a row with club chairman Sam Longson.
Leeds United then Nottingham Forest soon came calling for his services and his 44 days with the former and two European Cup triumphs with the latter are well documented.
Less so the 32 games he had with Brighton & Hove Albion where he recommenced his career after the fall-out with Derby, and especially that 8-2 defeat to Bristol Rovers.
Current Pirates' boss Paul Trollope has called on his side to make a similar flying start to tonight's encounter at the Memorial Stadium.
And if Rovers tap into even an ounce of the attacking verve displayed on the south coast back in 1973, when they scored in the fourth minute and flooded Brighton's penalty area with players, they will be taking all three points without question.
ITV presenter Brian Moore welcomed Clough onto his highlights show the following day by describing his post-match press conference as "the most astonishing attack I've ever heard a manager deliver about his players."
Clough branded his side as "not having a thimble full of heart between them".
"Things went wrong right from the start of the match and this got on top of them, and they just caved in," he explained to Moore.
For tonight's match the south coast outfit have a dozen senior players ruled out through injury and suspension and are still reeling from the loss of leading scorer Nicky Forster to injury on Saturday before a nightmare 4-0 home defeat to Crewe.
"Being on the receiving end of eight goals is never very easy," said Clough. "But you get up the next morning, the sun was shining and here I am wanting to talk football."
And he’s hoping his flying form will help City step up for the crunch games that lie ahead in the Championship.
"It's another big game,” said Sproule on the visit of league leaders Wolves. “It's a bit like last season when the big games started to come at this stage and you find they keep on coming till the end of the season. We're back to the bread and butter.
"So far they've been the best team in the league. They've got a strong squad, they've got a good manager. I'm sure Wolves, like a lot of other clubs will be thinking they should be in the Premier League.”
City were one of the victims of Wolves' devastating early season form, slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Molineux. Mick McCarthy’s side have struggled in recent games though and Sproule believes there could be a reversal of fortunes for the Robins at Ashton Gate.
“We went to their place and let ourselves down a little bit,” he said. “But we've found a bit of form of late ourselves and we're quietly confident. No matter whether you're sitting 19th or top of the league you can lose a game. That's the Championship for you.”
One of the reasons for City’s rejuvenation is Johnson’s switch to 4-3-3, a formation the Northern Irishman is fond of, although he’s yet to score this season.
He said: "The gaffer's tinkered a wee bit with the formation and it's probably a bit more like my Hibs days the way I'm playing because there's three up front.
"Goals will come. As long as you're either assisting or setting them up you're playing your part. Now I've been moved further up the field hopefully sometime maybe Nicky (Maynard) can square me one and I'll tap it in. I'm not worried as long as we keep on winning.
"We gave a Premier League team a run for it and that's given the team a lot of confidence,” he added. "The onus is on me now to just worry about the full-back. My main job as I've always done is to make the full-back worry about me. At the moment the full-backs are always on the back foot so long may that continue.”
The longer it continues the shorter Sproule’s hamstrings will become. "I knew about it (on Wednesday morning) when I went to get out of my bed. Belhadj is a cracking player and I put him on the back foot going one way, but I can assure you he put me on the back foot going the other way.
“That's why we want to get back to the play-offs this season to get that crack again to get to the Premier League because it would be wonderful to bring that kind of opposition to Ashton Gate every week.”
In the Pompey replay Johnson opted to leave the strength and power of Dele Adebola and Stern John on the bench and plump for the pace of Nicky Maynard and Peter Styvar alongside Sproule in attack.
A race between Maynard and Sproule for the next tap-in is an exciting contest. "Nicky is fairly pacey,” said Sproule. “But I'd put the mortgage on me."
