Region's para-athletes ready for Commonwealth Games

Three para-athletes from the West Midlands will be among those going for gold at the Commonwealth Games 2026.

Lizzie Dodds, Maddie Down and Didi Okoh will all be competing for England at the event, which gets under way in Glasgow later and runs until 2 August.

Dodds, from Shrewsbury, will be taking part in the long jump, along with Birmingham's Maddie Down, who is also in the 100m.

Okoh, also from Birmingham, will be competing in the discus, having taken it up after her usual sprinting event was dropped for athletes in her category.

On the day she received her England kit, Dodds told BBC Midlands Today it had been a "surreal" experience and was something she had never imagined.

She originally took up athletics while she was living in Qatar, before joining Shrewsbury Athletics Club when she moved back to the UK.

"They've been really helpful after coming back to the UK and readjusting," she added.

Asked how she felt ahead of her debut Commonwealth Games, Dodds said: "I'm really excited and it's starting to feel more real as the days move closer to the games."

Down, who trains with Halesowen Athletics Club, has previously competed in the Paralympics and world championships, despite being only 18 years old.

She made her name at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games in Trinidad and Tobago, where she won gold in the 100m and long jump.

For this year's Commonwealth Games, she has had to balance her training with taking her A-levels.

"It gives you something else to focus on I think," she said, "especially when you're doing A-levels and it's so hardcore – working however many hours a day.

"Just to come here to the track with your friends, you get to relax but do a different thing entirely."

Okoh trains with Birchfield Harriers in Birmingham and previously won a bronze medal in the T63 100m at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.

With the event in her category no longer part of the Commonwealth Games, Okoh turned to discus and said she loved the challenge.

She added: "At first, I think I really struggled with the concept of switching my technique away from one-dimensional running in a straight line to like turning around in a circle.

"So I think for me, I've grown to love it and I really do enjoy it."

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