Olympics honour for Spa teacher

Under starter’s orders - Margaret Werrett will perform as the Chief Starter at the Paralympic Games. (s)

A TEACHER from Droitwich has achieved her Olympic dream after being named as one of four official starters for the London 2012 games.

And the dream doesn’t end there for Margaret Werrett, a chemistry teacher at Bromsgrove School, as she has also been handed the prestigious honour of chief starter at the Paralympic Games which kick-off later this month.

The respected 51-year-old is the only woman in the four-strong team who will start races in the Olympic Stadium during the 10 days of athletics competition, which begins today (Friday).

Once concluded, Margaret will then turn her attentions to the Paralympic Games where she will be responsible for allocating events to other officials to start, as well as ensuring everything runs smoothly prior to the races.

Margaret is highly regarded in the world of athletics and her accomplishments and qualities led to UK Athletics presenting her for the 2011 European Athletics Women’s Leadership Award.

Her various other achievements include being marksman at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester and a call room steward at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

She was also a starter at the 2007 European Indoor Championships in Birmingham while in 2011, she was one of only two non-Greek starters at the World Special Olympics in Athens

“It’s very exciting, the Olympics will be the biggest event I’ve ever been involved in. We don’t know which races we’ll be starting but I expect it to be seven or eight races each,” she said.

“It’s unlikely that I’ll be starting the men’s 100m final, which is the most high profile event, as that is normally done by the chief starter or the international chief starter.

“Being involved with the Olympics will be mind-blowing, however to be the chief starter for the Paralympics is what I’ve dreamed of since London won the games in 2005.

“It is a huge honour for me to chief the Paralympics as I have been involved with disability athletics since the World Disability Championships were held in Birmingham in 1998,” she added.

Margaret is also already looking beyond the Olympics and Paralympics as she also hopes to officiate at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the city where she was born.

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