Rebels back Paralympian's gold bid

FC United of Manchester nutritionist Helen Walker is swapping the Evo-Stik Northern Premier League for the Olympic Stadium on Sunday to cheer on Paralympics Team GB athlete Graeme Ballard when he goes for gold in the T36 100 metres.

Instead of being at Bower Field for the Rebels’ clash with Hednesford, the club’s nutritionist who takes care of the players at Giggs Lane on matchdays, will be at London 2012 to see Chorley based athlete Ballard who she also looks after.

Ballard, 33, has Cerebral Palsy and has been in excellent form this season. In May he broke the 100m world record at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. On top of that feat he became the first athlete with his condition to break the 12 seconds mark for the 100 metres. At the Athens Paralympic Games he won a bronze medal and has represented Great Britain for almost 10 years now.

The nutritionist said: "I’ve been working with Graeme for 18 months after he and his mum, Barbara, contacted me to see if I could help him with maintaining his body weight and also to give advice on all-round nutrition to help improve his performance at events.

"As everyone knows, tickets for the Parlaympics are like gold dust so I was delighted when I was able to find a seat on the Olympics website to watch Graeme race. His is one of the first races on the Sunday morning and I can’t wait to be in the stadium watching him.

"I also have a ticket for the finals that evening so hopefully he’ll qualify for those, but he’s done fantastically well just to make the Paralympics and all you can ask is for him to do his best."