Wheelchair motocross star seeks championship funding

Ben (left) is trained by dad Michael and they go away for training sessions every month

A teenager who came sixth in the world wheelchair motocross championships is looking to secure funding to send him to the next one.

Ben, from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, is coached by dad Michael in what is an adapted version of a BMX.

The 14-year-old has spina bifada and started training for the sport when he was invited to bring his wheelchair to a skatepark by a friend.

Most of his training has to be done outside because the nearest indoor skatepark is in Corby, Northamptonshire, about 80 miles (128.7km) away.

The pair travel to different places every month so Ben can practise for competitions.

The WCMX World Championships are due to be held in Birmingham in the US in December.

Ben is thought to have become the youngest person in Europe to have performed a backflip in a wheelchair when he achieved the feat in Cardiff in 2022.

He finished sixth in the world championships, which were held in California last December.

“It’s a very new sport so everyone learns as they go. People are making up new tricks and variations of skateboard tricks or BMX tricks that they can adapt in a wheelchair,” Michael said.

“It’s such a new sport that there is no funding or sponsorship, even. It’s very hard to get any support...to actually get him to the world championships, let alone the competitions, so we have to be very selective.

“We train once a month somewhere so we have to travel away, whereas he’s competing against a lot of people who train every day."