Jersey speedster Grace Greenwood says she is hoping to follow in the footsteps of Scottish sprinter Maria Lyle as she embarks on her burgeoning athletics career. 

Greenwood and Scot Lyle are both stars of the T35 100m category, which is for athletes with cerebral palsy. 

And after watching Lyle bag two brilliant bronze medals at the last two Paralympic Games, Greenwood doesn’t need to look far for inspiration.

Greenwood, one of over 50 of the most talented young British athletes supported by a partnership between the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and SportsAid, said: “[Lyle] has got a very similar disability to me so it’s nice to see someone who is so similar to me doing really well. 

“She’s someone that I have always looked up to and take inspiration from.” 

After trying a number of sports as a child, including horse riding, karate and even adapted football, Greenwood found her home at Spartans Athletics Club in 2016, and has not looked back since. 

Greenwood was a natural talent on the track, and won two bronze medals for England at the Cerebral Palsy World Games in Barcelona when she was just 13-years-old. 

Now aged 17, she has her sights set on a successful summer and has been consistently running sub-18 seconds. 

A personal best of 17.90 at the Munster Games in County Tipperary in August 2021 put her up to a provisional World Para Athletics ranking of 13th. 

On top of her athletics career, Greenwood has academic commitments to fulfil at Highland College, but is determined to remain humble despite the increased focus on her burgeoning career.  

She said: “It means a lot to be included in this program mainly because it’s preparing us for a career and it’s nice to be noticed and that they think we have a career in this sport. 

“I plan on spending the financial reward mainly on flights and competitions because I live on quite a small island for all my competitions. 

“I have to travel so it’s just nice that my parents aren’t spending all their money. 

“I will also use it on getting some new spikes.” 

RBC, one of the largest banks in the world and a partner of SportsAid since 2014, provides the next generation of sports stars with financial assistance, recognition and personal development opportunities to help them fulfil their potential.

And since the partnership began, RBC has distributed more than 420 athlete awards with SportsAid.

Greenwood has learnt a lot on the track from competing in the International Paralympic Committee Grand Prix in Switzerland and International School Games. 

But she believes that the SportsAid and RBC programme has offered some important lessons away from the track too. 

Surrey Comet:

Greenwood, whose sport represents one of 30 sporting disciplines covered by the RBC and SportsAid’s partnership and who was nominated to SportsAid by her sport’s national governing body, added: “I learned a lot about the dos and don’ts of media from the workshop and how to prepare yourself for when we might start getting a lot of media attention. 

“It means a lot to be part of the RBC SportsAid group because it’s nice to just meet lots of different athletes because sprinting can be quite a lonely sport. 

“It's nice to talk to other athletes who may have similar experiences.” 

The sprinter hopes that swapping the island of St Brelades for Birmingham in July will be the springboard for future success overseas. 

Greenwood added: “I would like to go to a few Commonwealth Games and hopefully then to the Olympics.” 

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