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What does DDMC office manager David Holding do after a day at work?
Oh, just win a few gold medals
and break world records, that sort of thing

When DDMC members phone the club’s head office -
there’s a good chance they’ll be having a conversation with a London Marathon winner . . . oh, and a
world record holder . . . and gold medal winner at both the Paralympics and World Championships...
When he’s not being DDMC’s Office Manager, you see, David Holding is a bit of a star.
He’s actually won the London Marathon four times and a couple of weekends ago was gallantly pushing his way around -the famous circuit, hoping to keep in touch with the leaders until the final few hundred yards.
Then he would have had a chance.
For despite his calm, quiet manner, David is a speed king waiting to pounce in a frantic sprint for the line.
Such marathon tactics are not surprising when you recall that David is the reigning 1OOm world record holder, with the 14.33-second time he "ploughed out” in Australia in 1999 still eluding all-corners.
He freely admits that, even with four London titles on his mantlepiece. he is not a marathon specialist.
“I was speaking to one of the London Marathon organisers and he pointed out that every time I have won the marathon it has always been a sprint finish,”
David reveals.
“In fact, the only time I have had a chance to win it is when there has been a sprint finish.”
Luckily for him, the first year he entered, 1989, did end at high speed.
“There were about four guys at the end battling it out on a sprint finish. I remember nearly colliding with a Canadian athlete. The two of us went over the line
together and I didn’t know who had won it at the time. It was 10 or 20 minutes after the race that the result came through. I couldn’t believe I had won."
Not only had he won, he had become the first wheelchair athlete to break two hours in the London Marathon, with a time of lhr 59.31secs.
David was helped by the weather that year — it was a dull day, neither too hot nor too cold. The following year was much colder.
“1990 was probably my worst year,” says David. “I got hypothermia in the race and couldn’t complete it. I got to the 10 mile mark and I had to pull out.
“There was a great big downpour before the start of the race and we had to wait 20 minutes on the start line.
“As I was pushing I was shivering and lot of wheelchair athletes were passing me. I realised there was something seriously wrong and pulled up at one of the
ambulance centres on the course. That’s when they told me I had got hypothermia.”
The experience didn’t deter David from taking part in succeeding years:
“In 1991 I think I was fifth, in 1992 I was 2nd, 1993 3rd, then in 1994 I was back to winning it. It did depend on who came from abroad whether I had a
chance of winning or not.”
David competed in the London Marathon every year — win-fling again in 1996 and 1997 — up to 2001 when an arm injury ruled him out.

Then last year he was preparing for the lOOm and 200m at the World Championships in France, so again gave the long haul a miss because it was too close to the event in Lille.
“This year there are no world championships and no Paralympics so I have been treating it as winter training,” David said before the race. “If I do well it will be a bonus.” In the event, he was an admirable eighth, but he had been realistic about his chances: “There is a French guy who has entered who has done something like a lhr 23sec marathon and there are quite a lot of other internationals entered this year. I don’t think I will be there at the end to try to beat them on a sprint.”
But he was looking forward to taking part in what has become one of the biggest fixtures on the UK sporting calendar.
“They usually set the elite women off before us,” he explained, “and it is usually at about the six-mile mark, around the Cutty Sark, when we start to catch them up.
“You have to be careful because you have to weave in and out and you don’t want to run over someone like Paula Radcliffe!”
Now he has next year’s Paralympics in Athens in his sights. “I am in the squad and I’m hoping I will get picked,” says David.
He’s also hoping that once there he can overcome the “bridesmaid” syndrome that has seen him clocking the fastest times in a competition but in the semi-final rather than the main event.
In Lille last year, for example, he won silver in the 100 metres. “I was hoping for gold and there was only 1/600 of a second in it,” he says.."in fact I was faster in the semi-final and I had the best time on paper, but I wasn’t able to replicate that in the final.
At the Paralympics in Sydney in 2000, David very nearly beat his own lOOm world record with a 14.36-second time in the semi-final. “And then I messed it up in the final.
"I get a butterfly stomach before a race, especially in the lOOm because it is sudden death. No matter how many years I’ve been doing it I still get the nerves although that is supposed to increase the adrenaline.
“When the pressure’s not on and it is not just down to brute force you tend relax up a bit and go even better. You feel like you go a bit lumpy when the pressure’s on.”
Still, it didn’t stop him winning lOOm Paralympic Gold in
Atlanta in 1996 when he first broke the world record with a 14.45-second time and World Championship Gold in
Birmingham in 1998, the year he was also made an MBE. Then there was the race at the Southern Cross Games in Australia in 1999, “when I managed to plough out a 14.33” still the lOOm world record time.
Not bad for a lad from Kettering who got into wheelchair sport by first representing his school and then being picked forthe national championships at Stoke Mandeville when he was 14.
“I played other wheelchair sports but I used to like the racing better. I think it was the speed.
“In those days, everyone was using in everyday chairs and then I tried this racing chair. It went really fast and I got hooked on wheelchair racing as of then.”
Twenty years later, David is realistic about how much longer he can continue competing in the top flight.
“I have got a feeling that Athens may be my last chance. I still feel I am in contention for a medal, but it could be my last one.”
Meanwhile, David is clocking up his 15th year at DDMC, for the past three years as office manager at our Thrapston headquarters.
“It’s busy, but I’m enjoying it,” says David, who even remembers this magazine being in black and white and has seen many other changes in the organisation.
He was awarded a watch after ten years’ service and, if he’s still with us in another ten, it will be interesting to see what he might get after 25 years. But one thing is for sure his mantlepiece is probably already too full of sporting trophies to have room for the traditional carriage clock.

"I have a feeling that Athens may be my last cance. I still feel I am in contention for a medal, but it may be my last one."

David Holding