Oaklands Wolves produce another world champion

ST ALBANS — Oaklands College’s esteemed Wolves Academies is renowned for producing some of sports most successful athletes over recent years, with names such as Joel Kpoku, Jack Singleton, Olivia Breen, Ben Lawson and Daryll Neita all progressing through the college’s rich variety of Sports Academies.

The newest name to emerge is that of Maria Lyle, a 19-year-old Scottish 100m sprinter with cerebral palsy, who similarly to Olivia Breen, refuses to let her disability define her goals and aspirations.

Maria; a product of the Oaklands Wolves Athletics Academy, has embarked on a meteoric rise since leaving Oaklands College in 2017 with a Double Merit in Sport & Exercise Sciences.

Maria burst onto the athletics scene in 2015, announcing herself as a serious prospect at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. Maria clinched the 4x100m relay gold medal, as well as a double silver in the 100m and 200m T35 races.

It was from her display in Doha which secured her Team GB place for the iconic 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Maria would collect another three medals, including silver in the 4x100m relay and a further two bronze medals in the 100m and 200m T35 races.

Fast-forward three years and another 5 medals later, Maria would again affirm her place as one of the stars of Paralympic athletics, at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.

Shortly after clinching gold in Dubai this weekend, Maria was quoted by Athletics Weekly saying:

“I’m feeling happy, it’s been a long time coming. It’s my third world champs so it’s very special to finally get that title.

I got a good reaction, but I stumbled close to the start so at the end or most of the race I was trying to recover from that.”

Maria’s gold is her sixth world medal to date, at the age of just 19, having participated in her third World Championships of her glistening young athletics career.