When it comes to visual impairment in sport, not much has ever been spoken on the aids given to those who need it. Welsh Athletics took a turn for the better on this topic performing a guide runners workshop earlier in November and Jana Pacyna told me everything about it, and why it is so vital.
“The important thing first of all is that there is a simple reason to why some people do this. The people they are helping are professional athletes. It is still not heard of very often about the guide runners but they are very important for the athletes to be competing at the best of their ability”.
“A lot of people still see athletes with disability not as elite as able-bodied athletes. This is not the case. Yes the coaches of the able-bodied athletes probably do not get recognition, just as guide runners do not, but they are both just as vital to help the athletes work at 100%”.
On speaking about the vitality of the work needed to help with guide running, Jana went on to talk about the skill that is needed to undertake the role and more specifically how much harder it is than what you might first think.
“As difficult as it is to find people to want to do this, at the same time, it is even more difficult to find the people that are good at that as well. This is because being able to guide someone is not about just running them in the right way, it is about being completely with them, in sync”.
The training aspect of this is something that was considered particularly difficult. As with there being little guide runners out there, they have to learn to be synchronised with more than one runner, and to train someone to do it more than once, was a certain challenge.
“The best thing about these workshops is that we do get people ready to practice to do the real thing, and it is a need. Unfortunately there are still not many of them about, and learning to be in sync with one person is a challenge but greats can do it with more than one. If the workshops can make one of them then it is a success”.
Sports Insider by Gerren Scapens 