With the popularity of Para athletics growing substantially each year, Nicola Sutton spoke to a trio whose job it is to showcase, interpret and review the sport in all its superhuman glory.
Spanning all 10 days of the World Para Athletics Championships, Katharine Merry, Geoff Wightman and Rob Walker will grace the helm of their respective television commentary and stadium announcing duties, as they strive and battle to present the global event at its finest.
Each no stranger to the London Stadium on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, the broadcasting threesome here reveal their stories to the work they do so admirably.
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Athletes most looking forward to watching:
KM: (Para) – Aled Davies, Holly Arnold, Marcus Rehm in the field and Sophie Hahn and Richard Whitehead on the track. (IAAF) – Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and Renaud Lavillenie.
GW:(Para) – Chinese blind long jumper, Li Duan. (IAAF) – Men’s and women’s 1500m.
RW: (Para) – Jonnie Peacock, Richard Whitehead, Hannah Cockcroft, Marcel Hug and Tatyana McFadden. (IAAF) – Bolt, Farah, Laura Muir and Genzebe Dibaba.
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Katharine Merry
London will be the 42-year-old mother of two’s sixth World Championships and the Sydney 2000 Olympic 400m bronze medallist is relishing the opportunity to commentate on British screens once again:
“I’ll take on a lead commentating role that I am proud to have cemented since 2011 – working alongside the established commentating team of John Rawling and Rob Walker. I am very proud to be part of the Channel 4 set up that has progressed disability sport on to such a wide audience,” she revealed.
Having also worked at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympics for the BBC, it is evident Merry’s passion for para track and field has not wavered since:
“The 2012 Paralympic Games were amazing, rewarding, surprising and testing all in one. What happened in London with the Games and the coverage changed para sport for me,” the 1999 World fifth placer explained.
Merry commentates, hosts and presents events, dinners and awards ceremonies all around the UK and world, in addition to working across another four sports for Sky TV, Eurosport and Channel 5.
She will commentate for the IAAF’s world television feed during their championships a month after the para equivalent, resulting in being away from her children for a total of around six weeks.
For Merry though, a summer in London is an occasion not to be missed:
“It is so rewarding because we have the position to describe and voice some super performances – it is a delight to tell the stories, paint the pictures and inform the public of the journeys these great athletes have been on,” she asserted.
Geoff Wightman
The voice of both championships will undoubtedly be the same man who presented the 2012 Olympics – the 56-year-old Wightman as stadium announcer once again.
As an athletics consultant, he has had an involvement in the final 18 months of the London 2017 Local Organising Committee delivery, including the IAAF team leaders’ visit and the marathon and walks events.
A 2:13.17 marathoner, Wightman will work alongside Kris Temple for the para event and Rawling for the IAAF championship.
With commentating experience working on the British track and field indoor and outdoor scene, the London Marathon event catalogue and in the USA, Denmark, Germany and Italy, Wightman’s voice will offer a familiar and skilled presence to the 60,000 in-stadium fans.
“I think the most enjoyable part of my job is connecting an enthusiastic crowd with athletes who are facing the biggest occasion of their careers,” he explained.
Working with piles of stats and biographical information just like Merry and Walker, father of three Wightman – who coaches son, Jake who will contest the 1500m in the IAAF event – continued:
“As an athletics nut, it is the best seat in the house – our job is to connect the athletes and spectators so they get the best out of each other and there is no stadium in the world where that happens better, it rocks.
“There are some fantastic event presentation innovations being trialled in London and I’m looking forward to the 100,000 primary schoolchildren who will be at the para’s, courtesy of the Mayor of London’s ticket promotion – I hope the support levels will be supersonic, we are ready for them.”
Rob Walker
A commentator of 20 years and having worked in eight different sports, the 42-year-old will join Merry working for Channel 4 live – a position Walker has held since 2011 including during the London Paralympics – and he will then partake in IAAF TV duty with Merry and 1980 Olympic 800m champion, Steve Ovett for the second event.
Having also worked in TV presenting and as a freelance reporter, Walker has four summer and two winter Olympics under his belt and London 2017 will be his seventh IAAF world championships.
“I think the paras will be very special as there is a huge nostalgia factor and the memory of 2012 is still so strong and active,” Walked said.
A regular voice on the London Marathon and Great North Run coverage, the father of one too endures an exhausting time before and during major events:
“The hardest element to the job is the fatigue,” he revealed, “but I’m not complaining – your passion is key to selling the story and doing the athletes justice.
“There is no better sport or job in the world and I know how very lucky I am to be doing it.”
