Shelly Woods’ quest for a Paralympics medal at London 2012 goes on after she failed to qualify for the T54 800m final.
The 26-year-old wheelchair athlete, from St Annes, missed out by just 0.25secs on a place in tomorrow’s final, finishing third in her heat from which only the first two qualify.
It follows the disappointment of finishing eighth in Sunday’s 5,000m final, though Woods insisted she never expected to qualify in the 800m, which is the weakest of her four Paralympic events.
The silver lining is that Woods has a day off ahead of Thursday’s 1500m heats and can conserve more energy ahead of Sunday’s marathon, which represents her best chance of gold.
And Woods, who won silver in the 1500m in the 2008 Paralympics and is the world record holder, says she will take inspiration track gold-medallists David Weir and Mickey Bushell ahead of her remaining two events.
“Dave’s been incredible and Mickey was amazing,” she said. “The good performances from them inspire me, I want a good performance too. I’ll keep going and look to that.”
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