This week Bill Carne was delighted to meet up with Harry Thomas, who has been a Welsh international for five years in wheelchair basketball and is looking to spread his sporting wings as a wheelchair racer like Paralympian legend David Weir...

WHEN this year’s Sport Pembrokeshire Awards evening was held at Folly Farm at the end of November one of the loudest cheers of a wonderful evening in front of a crowd of 650 was rightly reserved for 15 year old Harry Thomas, who was the winner of the ‘Junior Disability Sport’ award.

The superbly engraved cut-glass trophy now takes pride of place amongst Harry’s mementoes and was fitting reward for his involvement in wheelchair basketball, where he has represented Wales at under 15 level for a number of years, and more recently for his growing reputation as a very promising young wheelchair racer in the mode of Paralympian legend David Weir.

Receiving the award from John Morgan, of Disability Sport Wales, was also reward for Harry’s resilience off the court or track because in the previous five years he was one of the runners-up for the award and so already had five very nice cut-glass trophies as proof of how well he has done for a considerable time since he first got involved as a nine year old.

Angela Miles, the Disability Sport Officer for Pembrokeshire County Council, working at Sport Pembrokeshire, helped Harry along the road as she started up a wheelchair basketball club in Haverfordwest.

He has also tried wheelchair tennis, football and rugby but always enjoyed basketball the most – and the club is still going strong and now has more than ten members who meet for training and a game at the Sports Hall at Sir Thomas Picton School every other Friday evening.

It is good to report that although Harry has developed his skills to a considerable degree he still attends regularly and enjoys taking part and encouraging others.

Harry hadn’t been involved long before he caught the eye of coach Joanna Coates- McGrath and was invited to attend trials for the newly-formed Welsh wheelchair basketball team and although he was by far the youngest there was selected for the squad, and been a regular ever since.

Harry has twice been the Welsh top scorer over the season as Martin Landsley and Lee Coulson have also been coaches and the next change for Harry is to step up to the under 19 squad, where the opposition will inevitably be bigger, stronger and more experienced – but he is already looking forward to the challenge!

“We take part with a mixed team in the annual Junior Championships which this season took place at the Worcester University Campus,” said Harry, “and we stay there for three days in the students’ accommodation and play against the likes of Scotland, London, Yorkshire, the South West and South East.

“We play two or three games each day with mixed teams allowed, and there is a great team spirit so that although I am the only one from Pembrokeshire in the squad it is great to be playing.

“The squad trains once a month on a Sunday in Aberystwyth, where we practise things like defensive drills, quick passing and accurate shooting, plus attacking skills, and there is also an emphasis on manoeuvrability, quick reactions and good hand/eye co-ordination.”

Harry would be the first to say that he couldn’t do what he does so well without total family support, led by mum Emma, who hasn’t played much sport but enjoys watching her son playing after the inevitable travelling that takes so much time but she regards as more than worthwhile, as does her partner Paul Carty.

Then there’s sisters Olivia (17), who enjoys keeping fit and going to ‘spinning classes’, and Anya (11) who has taken part in cross country and enjoys netball, plus Auntie Kate and uncle Phil Steele, who played rugby and is now a well-known journalist, television commentator and after-dinner speaker.

Harry’s grandmother, Anne Thomas, is also very proud of her grandson’s sporting exploits and late granddad Gareth Wyn Thomas, would also have been delighted to see Harry doing so well because he was very much from a sporting background.

2015 saw an important development for Harry because he was invited to UWIC, Cardiff, for a day by former Paralympian athlete Anthony Hughes, who is now a manager in disability sport and asked him to try his skills in a racing wheelchair, with a view to competing on the track in distances of 100, 200 and 400 metres.

It appealed to Harry because it depends ultimately on individual performance and although the racing wheelchair was a little more difficult to handle than he was previously used to, he loved it from the first moment.

“The racing wheelchair is much sleeker and lighter that I’ve been used to but it was great right from the start as I had to really focus on maintaining a straight line down the track. Of course the 200 and 400 metres will be far more demanding because of the bends but by the end of the afternoon I had really improved my times as I gained in confidence.

“Building up my upper-body strength is the next step for me because you have to keep your elbows high and hit down hard on the wheel rim to gain speed – and I’ve already started on a sensible weight-training course at home each day.

“I now train in Johnstown, Carmarthenshire, with another Paralympian in Nathan Stephens and we are working indoors until the weather improves and then we’ll be out on the track as often as possible. At the moment we are working on my core strength and improving my reaction times by doing plenty of starts.”

Great news for Harry is the fact that he could soon be off to the Kings Meadow Stadium in Surrey to take part in the David Weir Academy for some weekends where he could even be trained by the great man, who, along with Paralympian basketball star Harry Brown, who stars for Great Britain, are Harry’s sporting heroes.

Ask Harry about sporting ambitions and he would say that he would love to compete at basketball or wheelchair racing in the Paralympics at some stage and with his determination and willingness to work hard at improving his skills who knows what he could achieve.

As Angela Miles told us,

“From the very first moment that he joined us he was a dedicated young sportsman as well as being a lovely boy it is a pleasure to know. He is prepared for all the travelling and at Ysgol Bro Gwaun shows his willingness to participate by playing in goal in football or competing at swimming galas when he’s had time. Harry deserves to do really well.”

We could pay Harry Thomas no greater compliment and we wish him continued success, especially with regard to his new sport of wheelchair racing!