Laura Sugar
MBE
Personal information
NationalityBritish
Born (1991-02-07) 7 February 1991
Saffron Walden, England
Sport
Country Great Britain
SportParacanoe
Track and field
Disabilitycongenital
Disability classKL3 (paracanoeing)
T44 (athletics)
Event(s)WKL3 (paracanoe)
100m (track)
200m
long jump
ClubBirchfield Harriers
Coached byFemi Akinsaya (club)
Paula Dunn (national)
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finalsTokyo 2020 1st place, gold medalist(s)
Personal best(s)100m – 13.55s
200m – 28.29s
Long jump – 4.48m
Medal record
Representing  Great Britain
Women's paracanoeing
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place2020 TokyoKL3
World Championships
Gold medal – first place2021 CopenhagenKL3
Gold medal – first place2022 DartmouthKL3
Gold medal – first place2023 DuisburgKL3
Silver medal – second place2019 SzegedKL3
European Championships
Gold medal – first place2022 MunichKL3
Bronze medal – third place2019 PoznańKL3
Women's Paralympic athletics
European Championships
Silver medal – second place2016 Grosseto100 m T44
Bronze medal – third place2014 Swansea100 m T44
Bronze medal – third place2014 Swansea200 m T44
Bronze medal – third place2016 Grosseto200 m T44

Laura Sugar MBE (born 7 February 1991) is a British Paralympic athlete who competes in sprint events under the T44 classification. Before taking up athletics Sugar represented Wales at field hockey captaining the under-20s team. She has now switched to canoeing.

Personal career

Sugar was born in Saffron Walden, England in 1991.[1][2] She was born with talipes (club foot), which meant her foot was turned in. Sugar underwent surgery to correct the problem as a baby, but it left her with no movement in her ankle.[3] She was educated at Newport Free Grammar before matriculating to the University of Leeds where she studied sports science.[3] She followed this with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education to qualify as a secondary school teacher.[3] She took up a position at Ashby School as a PE teacher, but left her position in 2015 to focus on her athletics training.[4]

Hockey career

Sugar took up field hockey while attending Newport Free Grammar, starting at the age of 12. She played as a youth for Saffron Walden, Cambridgeshire and was selected for trials for the East of England squad. This brought her to the attention of Hockey Wales who successfully recruited her to the Welsh youth squad due to her father's Welsh roots.[3] She first played for Wales at the age of 17, and progressed through the age groups until she reached the senior levels, captaining the Wales under-20s which Sugar described as "one of my proudest moments through hockey".[3]

Athletics career

During her hockey training the team's physio commented on Sugar's ankle impairment, stating that she should try out a Paralympic sport as she would be able to gain a classification.[3] While watching the 2012 Summer Paralympics she noticed that the British discus thrower, Dan Greaves appeared to have "the same leg", and Sugar decided to explore her physio's advice.[3] She attended a Paralympic sport's festival in Surrey and after considering cycling and athletics she decided to follow the latter. In February 2013 she had her first athletics trial and was informed that she would be flown out to Dubai in four weeks to be classified before competing at the Fazaa International, an IPC Grand Prix event.[3] At the Grand Prix she ran in the 100m and 200m sprints, winning a silver and gold medal.[5] Now a T44 classification athlete, Sugar had to decide on whether to continue her hockey career or switch to track and field. She chose athletics and spent the next ten months committing all her time outside of her teaching to her new training regime.[3]

Sugar's first major international competition came in July 2013 when she was selected as part of the Great Britain team to compete at the 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon. In the Women's 100m (T44) she came through the heats to finish fifth in the finals. In the 200m she finished fourth, just outside a podium finish.[5] The following year she won her first international medals, collecting two bronze medals at the 2014 IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea, in the 100m and 200m sprints. During 2014 and 2015 Sugar also entered long jump events. Her most notable result being at the European Championships in Swansea where she came fourth with a distance of 4.27 metres.[5]

In the build-up to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Sugar travelled to Doha to compete at her second World Championships. She was selected by the Great Britain management to co-captain the team, along with middle-distance runner Paul Blake.[6] Sugar only competed in the 100 metres event, and her time of 14.86, way outside her personal best, was not enough to get her through the heats.[5] The following year brought a return to success with two medals at the 2016 IPC Athletics European Championships in Grosseto. She won a bronze in the 200m and a silver in the 200m, just a tenth of a second behind the winner Irmgard Bensusan of Germany.[7] In July Sugar was confirmed as a member of the Great Britain team to compete at the Rio Paralympics.[8]

Sugar was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to canoeing.[9][10]

References

  1. ↑ "Sugar, Laura". IPC. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Athlete profile: Sugar, Laura". paralympic.org. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Laura Sugar goes from the highs of hockey to Paralympic potential". cambridge-news.co.uk. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  4. ↑ Edwards, Michael (6 August 2015). "Sugar gives up teaching job to focus on World Championships". saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Laura Sugar". thepowerof10.info. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Blake and Sugar named captains for Doha". britishathletics.org.uk. 15 October 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  7. ↑ Mason, Aaron (16 June 2016). "Laura Sugar adds another medal at IPC European Athletics Championships". cambridge-news.co.uk. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  8. ↑ "Paralympics GB Track and Field Line-up Confirmed for Rio 2016". paralympics.org.uk. 26 June 2016. Archived from the original on 17 August 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
  9. ↑ "No. 63571". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 2022. p. N25.
  10. ↑ "New Year Honours 2022: Jason Kenny receives a knighthood and Laura Kenny made a dame". BBC Sport. 31 December 2021.
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