{"id":8073,"date":"2021-05-07T07:46:04","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T07:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=8073"},"modified":"2021-05-07T07:46:04","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T07:46:04","slug":"bailey-matthews-honoured-at-spoty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=8073","title":{"rendered":"Bailey Matthews honoured at SPOTY"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bailey Matthew, the eight-year-old from Doncaster who became an overnight sensation after his feats at this summer\u2019s Castle Howard Triathlon, has been honoured with the Helen Rollason Award at tonight\u2019s BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Bailey, who has cerebral palsy, competed in his first-ever triathlon at July\u2019s Castle Triathlon Series event, racing the 100m lake swim,\u00a04km bike and 1.3km run \u2018Garfield\u2019 event in Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

As Bailey approached the finish of the run, he dropped his walking support with 20m to go and completed the home straight unaided. Hundreds of spectators lined the chute \u2013 some roaring their support, others in tears \u2013 as the eight-year-old tumbled a couple of times before picking himself up to cross the line into arms of his proud parents, Jonathan and Julie.<\/p>\n

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The story became a social media sensation, gaining over 50,000 Facebook \u2018Likes\u2019 in two days on the Castle Tri Series page before being picked up by countless newspapers, including the Daily Mirror and Daily Mail, and major media outlets in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia, Germany, America and more.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

With Bailey transcending the sport of tri to become an international inspiration, we caught up with his dad Jono to talk SPOTY, Bailey\u2019s future tri plans and, erm, the Foo Fighters\u2026<\/p>\n

220: What does it mean to you all to be recognised by such a prestigious award? What was your reaction when you were notified?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jono: It\u2019s absolutely amazing that Bailey has been recognised for all his awards, but the Sports Personality of the Year really is the cream on his cake. When the BBC rang me to tell me he\u2019d been awarded it, I was speechless and, once I\u2019d got my breath back, I could\u2019ve fallen through the floor. We\u2019re all so very proud of Bailey and his attitude to life and his non-defeatist approach to whatever task is put in front him. For the rest of the world to be feeling the same [as us] is outstanding.<\/p>\n

How have things for Bailey changed since his feats at the Castle Howard tri made headlines around the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Things for Bailey personally haven\u2019t really changed. We don\u2019t think he quite understands the magnitude of his achievement and what all the publicity he\u2019s had all means. Everytime he gets a new award he says the same thing, \u2018What have I done so special to deserve this? I\u2019ve only done a blooming triathlon!\u2019<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for Bailey in triathlon? Will he be racing more Castle Ti Series events?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bailey is really looking forward to next season. We\u2019re lining up to do the full Castle Tri Series next season, which should be a great adventure for us all. Bailey is particularly looking forward to his open-water swim training as this is his favourite discipline.<\/p>\n

Who are Bailey\u2019s own sporting heroes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bailey doesn\u2019t have any sporting heroes. The only famous person he knows of and follows is Dave Grohl from the band The Foo Fighters as this is his favourite band. Bailey was truly heartbroken when Dave fell off stage and broke his leg. But he\u2019s a good hero to have as he showed the same grit and determination and got back up and carried on playing!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And what are Bailey\u2019s interests away from tri?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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His interests away from sport are learning the guitar, piano and drums. He also writes his own short stories and has a keen interest in law as his uncle is a barrister, and they spend loads of time talking about law and the ins and outs of it.<\/p>\n

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For more on the Castle Tri Series, head to http:\/\/www.castletriathlonseries.co.uk\/<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey Matthew, the eight-year-old from Doncaster who became an overnight sensation after his feats at this summer\u2019s Castle Howard Triathlon, has been honoured with the Helen Rollason Award at tonight\u2019s BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards. Advertisement Bailey, who has cerebral palsy, competed in his first-ever triathlon at July\u2019s Castle Triathlon Series event, racing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}