As soon as the javelin left Dan Pembroke’s hand, he knew it was a big throw. Midway through the Paralympic F13 final in Paris, the Briton had cleared 71.15m, 14cm better than Uzbekistan’s Aleksandr Svechnikov’s seven-year-old world record.
“I looked at that scene and just nailed it,” says Pembroke. “Yeah, I won the gold medal and got that world record.”
Within minutes, however, the unbridled joy faded and reality quickly set in. The 33-year-old, who had just established a huge lead over the rest of the field, suddenly saw that gap disappear as Iran’s Ali Piruj – his biggest rival and the man who finished second behind him at the 2021 Tokyo Games, threw 69.74m.
“That shut me down,” Pembrook admits. “I thought his next throw might put me in second place, but I’d trained for this scenario.”
Under the guidance of John Trower, who coached Steve Beckley to three Olympic medals and a world record, nothing was left to chance.In the weeks leading up to Paris, Pembroke and his mentor worked religiously on visualization and responding to various scenarios.
Dan Pembroke (Getty)
“We had these sessions where, in my head, I was going through each of the six throws (the number each athlete did in the finals),” Pembroke explains reacting afterwards and so much more. All this was instilled in my head at the Paralympics and it helped me a lot at the Stade de France.”
The hard work well and truly paid off as Pembroke put the result beyond doubt with a remarkable 74.49m.
“This was one,” he says. “I never thought it would be 74.49m. It was the biggest moment of my life.”
Throwing the javelin that far was extra-ordinary because it matched the marks Pembroke had registered as a younger, able-bodied athlete. later his parents told him he would eventually go blind.
“It was a big thing to say at the time, but it was the best thing they could have ever done,” he says to do the things I wanted to do, I should have done them soon.”
Pembroke started as a javelin thrower at school and then joined Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow AC.Within a few years he broke many age group records and became the England under-20 champion. After setting a personal best of 75.89m in 2011, he knew Olympic qualification for the 2012 London Olympics was out of the question, but he tore the medial collateral ligament in his elbow at the 2012 Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Championships quit sports and go on a trip.
“I packed a backpack (and went on my own) to Sardinia with a speargun and a fishing net,” he says . For the first time, I was out of the military program and I felt free. I wanted that feeling more, so I spent the next four years seeing the world.”
Dan Pembroke (IPC)
It wasn’t until 2021, in fact, that Pembroke decided to return to the javelin and accepted a place in the British Paralympic World Class programme.He was classified in the F13 category for severely visually impaired athletes and has since become a two-time Paralympic and World Champion.
He now has only 10 percent of his sight and is not sure how long it will be before he goes completely blind.With the extra publicity from the Paralympic gold, he wants to use it to raise awareness of vision impairment and is working on a film that has already received grant money. to give others an idea of what he experiences every day.
“If you looked at me, you’d think, ‘That guy’s not visually impaired,’ and that’s the perception I want to change,” Pembroke tells AW. “But if someone’s sitting two meters away from me on and I’m looking at his face, I can’t really see their other eye, just the bridge of their nose. What I’m doing is scanning the area, and then my brain recognizes everything around me what?”
Dan Pembroke (Getty)
None of that can stop him from achieving his goal of bettering that PB from his youth. In fact, he now believes the 80m is not out of the question. Already, Pembroke’s mind has turned to the next Paralympics in Los Angeles , and he’s also embarked on a side project in addition to the funding WCP receives to help him get there.
“I’ve created a beer called Paris Gold,” says the AW Male Para-athlete of the Year, who grows his own hops in Herefordshire hoping to introduce it to a wider audience.
“I’ve teamed up with Siren Brewery in Berkshire and we’re taking it to the mass market. We want to take this idea to Aldi,” the brewery said. “We will give you a percentage of the proceeds and it will contribute to your training.” I am marketing it as “every box sold helps Dan to LA 2028”.
He knows what to do when he gets there.
» This feature first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
