CRAIG MacLean, whose haul of medals from major championships stretches back to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has been named as part of the last additional members of the Great Britain team for the Paralympics in Rio. Now 45, the cyclist from Grantown-on-Spey will pilot James Ball in both track and road events in Brazil.
The other newcomers to the squad, which now consists of 264 competitors, are cyclist Crystal Lane, judo player Natalie Greenhough, shooter Tim Jeffery, table-tennis player Ashley Facey-Thompson and fencer Gemma Collis. The extra places became available to Britain as a result of the decision by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to withdraw membership from the Russian NPC. Once that decision was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the places originally allocated to Russian athletes were shared out among other nations.
All British athletes selected today have been in contention for a place in the ParalympicsGB team and only narrowly missed out on selection earlier this year.
Chef de Mission Penny Briscoe commented:
“All of these athletes have trained incredibly hard over several years to be in contention for a place on the team," said Penny Briscoe, Britain's chef de mission. "I’m delighted that they will join ParalympicsGB in just two weeks’ time. They have continued to train in their sport programmes and I am confident they will be ready to show what talented athletes they all are when competition in Rio begins.”
MacLean won team-sprint silver in Sydney alongside Chris Hoy and Jason Queally. He went on to win multiple medals at world championships and Commonwealth Games, then from 2008 did not compete in order to qualify as a co-pilot for paralympic events.
As a pilot for Anthony Kappes, he won tandem gold at the 2012 Paralympics in London. He then teamed up with his old partner and fellow-Scot Neil Fachie for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games two years ago, winning gold in both the Tandem B kilo and the Tandem B sprint.
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