Tees hero Kenny has sights on more gold

Sep 5 2008 by Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette

THE Beijing Paralympics kick-off tomorrow. In the last of our series looking at the lives of Teesside’s three Paralympians, Sarah Judd meets an athlete who has overcome cerebral palsy and bereavement to become one of the best in the land.


SOUTH BANK-BORN javelin ace Kenny Churchill has broken the world record five times.

With a staggering complement of 20 medals - including 14 golds - Kenny is among the best of British athletes.

But at 33, he will not rest until he has given gold medal-worthy performances in Beijing next Tuesday, before hopefully ending his career with a bang in London 2012.

Speaking of his Beijing chances, his dad, Kenneth, 68, said: “He’s going out to win it. If he doesn’t win it, it won’t be for the want of trying.”

His dad also reveals Kenny will end his career with what he hopes will be the performance of his life on home turf.

“Kenny has already said that if he can get through to London 2012, that will be his last,” he said. “He’s a big occasion athlete and thrives on a good atmosphere.”


Like many Paralympic athletes, Kenny’s career in sport began with physiotherapy to help him cope with his disability.

Kenneth said: “Kenny suffers from cerebral palsy which means the right hand side of his body doesn’t receive signals from the brain as quickly as the left and he has speech problems. He didn’t walk until he was about four or five and then he had his leg operated on and started to make progress.”

Following the operation, Kenny had ongoing physiotherapy while his dad taught him how to swim.

“He achieved some swimming medals and that developed his interest,” said Kenneth.

“Then, when he was about 10, we were at a sports event in Walker, Newcastle and a group of trainers from around the North-east were there. One of them gave Kenny a ball filled with sand and told him to throw it down the gym as far as he could.

“It hit the wall about half way up on the other side and the trainer, who was from Cumbria, just said, ‘I thought so.’

“Ever since then he’s been a thrower and has competed in the discus, shotput and javelin, but now specialises in javelin.”


Shortly after the breakthrough, Kenny joined Cleveland Harriers and trained at Clairville Stadium, Middlesbrough.

While he was a pupil at Ormesby School, his teacher Ian Smith also supported his development in athletics. Kenny went on to become a member of Durham Harriers and in 1992 won his first medal - a bronze in javelin - at the Barcelona Paralympics.

“I went to Barcelona with him and his mum, Betty,” said Kenneth.

It was an important achievement for Kenny, as it was the only medal his mum would see him win in a major competition before her death in 1994.

Kenny said: “My mum got ill in 1992 and she was in Barcelona watching me and so proud of me because I won Bronze.

“Then in 1994 she died before I went to my first world championships. I was very upset but I said at her gravestone that I would win gold in Berlin at the worlds. I couldn’t believe it when I did.”

At those World Championships, Kenny didn’t just win gold. For the first time, he broke the world record in javelin, and also brought home a gold medal in the discus.


His dad said: “Betty had always been fiercely proud of him.

“When he went to Berlin and broke the world record for the first time we were still at sixes and sevens after she had died.

“I had told him he didn’t have to go but Kenny said his mother wanted him to do it.”

From that point, Kenny’s career went from strength to strength and as his father describes it, he “won everything that was put in front of him.”

In the Paralympic Games in Atlanta 1996, Kenny set another new world record when he took a second gold in javelin and won bronze in the shot put. He went on to smash the world record for javelin three more times.

Kenneth recalls frightening the life out of patrons at his local, the Stapleton Arms in Eston, when Kenny phoned home from Berlin to say he had broken the world record for the first time.

“Kenny phoned the pub to let me know how he’d got on and said, ‘Dad, I’ve just smashed the world record.’ I gave such a yell and frightened the life out of the pub!”

Kenneth said the Stapleton Arms was a great support early in Kenny’s athletics career. They gave him his first job and raised £600 to help fund his trip to Atlanta. “His job at the pub gave him confidence and he also went on to work at Yates Wine Lodge in Middlesbrough,” said Kenneth.


Kenny is now a full-time athlete and is also a hands-on dad-of-three. He lives in Loughborough with his partner, Claire Williams, 21 and their 10-month-old daughter Gracie, and also has two children, Ewan, eight and Amber, six, from a previous relationship.

The javelin ace met Claire, 21, a discus thrower, from Carmarthen, Wales, when they were both training for Athens at Loughborough University training centre.

And Claire describes the fun-loving sports star as a champion dad. “He’s just a very fun-loving, really friendly person,” she said.

“He’s just a nice character to be around and he doesn’t let anything get to him.”

Kenny is also keen to keep in regular contact with his dad, a retired British Steel worker, who has dedicated much of his life to his career. “He worked so hard for me so I could go so far in my life,” Kenny said.

Kenny also credits his coach Paul Young, who supported him from 1992 to 2004 and current coach Mark Edwards with helping him to achieve success.

Kenny, who threw 48.09m to set a world record in Athens in 2004, said: “I am looking forward to Beijing because I’m an underdog for the first time since 2006. There’s a Chinese athlete who can throw 51 metres. But I do believe that if I do well on the day I can win gold.”