MARK Brown won the bronze medal at last weekend's Paralympic Revival meeting in Germany in his first-ever 800m race.

Sponsored by German prosthetics company Ottobock, the games are for amputees only (Mark has lost an arm). They take place every two years at Duderstadt, which is south of Frankfurt on the old East Germany-West Germany border. The event provides a great opportunity for the world's elite disabled athletes - the winners of previous international games -to get together.

It was his third appearance and in each of the previous two he has won the 5,000m, but his time, with no 5K on the itinerary, he was invited to run the 800m. Distance specialist Mark who has just run a marathon, recorded 2.07 to finish behind David Evans of Australia and Briton Andrew Bird.

In October, Mark will be competing in the Southern Cross Games in Sydney, Australia. This will be a trial for athletes earmarked for the Great Britain team in next year's Paralympics which will be held in Sydney after the Olympic Games. The team will be staying at a holding camp in Brisbane which will be used for acclimatisation and training.

Next year the camp will be used prior to transfer to the Olympic Village. The Southern Cross Games includes competitors with a variety of disabilities including partially sighted and wheelchair athletes, and Mark and his colleagues will be asked to assess the suitability of the facilities for disabled athletes. The 37-year-old Clayton Harrier, who has won medals in both World Championships and Paralympics, has seen great improvements in provision for disabled athletes. "There is still a long way to go," he said, "But I wish that disabled athletes had been given these opportunities years ago."

The trip in October will be funded from the National Lottery with the money being allocated by UK Athletics who are increasingly integrating with disabled sport. As Mark says: "Last week, blind athletes were competing in invitation events at the World Championships at Seville, and our World Cross Country Championships in Portugal next year will be held alongside the IAAF World Championships."

Following our coverage of Mark's races in the World Disabled Games in Barcelona last month, Brian Souter a teacher at Southlands High School in Chorley contacted the Lancashire Evening Telegraph. His students produce a magazine called Up Close which is a series of interviews with prominent local personalities and they wanted to include Mark. We put Brian in touch with Mark, and he will appear in their next edition in the company of Blackburn Rovers' Brian McClair, Lord Derby, Stan Cox - who also ran in the famous Jim Peters marathon in the 1950s -a lady who races Alaskan huskies, and the world marbles champion.

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