Danny Nobbs

As the British Record holder in his class and ranked No.1 in the world this season, Paralympic shot putter Danny Nobbs is well on course to realise his ultimate dream of a gold medal at London 2012.

Danny was a county standard cricketer & footballer before taking up athletics. He became disabled following a motorbike accident in 1996 and he initially began his athletics career as wheelchair racer, before moving over to shot put having been invited to a throws weekend.

The rest was history as he began to make a name for himself in the sport, being named British Wheelchair Association Athlete of Year in 2004 and representing Great Britain for the first time in 2007. He also set a new British record in the same year, which was only a taste of things to come.

Despite Danny’s initial plan of competing on the Paralympic stage for the first time in 2012, his continued progression saw him qualify for the Games in 2008 in Beijing. His 5th placed finish in the F54 category allowed him to gain an invaluable taste of competing at the highest level ahead of the Games in London and with a throw of 9.13m in the Final he was also just 1cm shy of a PB.

Danny’s evident commitment to his sport and his long term ambition of success at the London Paralympics are magnified by the fact that he juggles his intense training programme with his full time job as a sponsorship consultant at Aviva. It was this commitment that saw him recognised after the Paralympics in 2008, as a nominee in the ICAP Square Mile Sport City Sportsperson of the Year award, which honours achievement at the highest level of sporting excellence whilst maintaining a full time job.

His successes in 2008 saw him propelled to 5th in the world in his class and it was onwards and upwards in 2009, starting off the season with a new PB and British record of 9.29m, followed by a 1st place finish at the BWAA Grand Prix in Portugal.

Danny has reached new heights recently as 2010 is proving to be a landmark year. A steady start to the season was followed by the BWAA International at the Stoke Mandeville stadium, where the hard work and dedication that he has shown to his training and competition resulted in an absolutely huge throw of 9.72m. Not only smashing the British Record and his PB, this also saw Danny meet the qualification standard for next year's World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand. Speaking of this landmark achievement, Danny said: “I'm absolutely thrilled to have achieved the 'A' standard and hope this will give me the confidence to put in some big performances before the end of the domestic season. Going into the event, my personal best stood at 9.29m from 2009, and the 'B' standard for qualification was just short of that at 9.23m. I knew that I had worked really hard and have been throwing well in training so was confident that I would get close to that. But everything came together with five out of my six throws being over the qualifying standard, the best being 9.72m, 43cm over my previous personal best and smashing the British record.”

Now third in the World in his category, Danny has his sights set on success at the London Paralympics in 2012 and with a PB now just 20cm short of the World Record, he has plenty to be optimistic about. He has recently been selected in the Aviva GB & NI team for the IPC World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, due to take place in January 2011.

Danny lives and trains in Norfolk, where he has gained much recognition as an athlete and an ambassador for disability sport. His commercial sponsors have included Amazon Leisure and My Goodness Shakes.