Published: 15 January 2006
From John Dennis
The high level of cycling popularity in Reading received a further boost when two of its resident track cyclists, 16 year old Lara Wann (Agiskoviner.com and Palmer Park Velo) and 32 year old Matthew Plasted (Reading CC) were voted Sports Personalities of the Year this week. The Mayor of Reading Cllr. Riaz Chaudhri presented Lara with the Female Junior title and Matt, the Disabled title in the contest sponsored by the Reading Evening Post newspaper.
Lara had an outstanding 2005 season, winning the National Youth pursuit title and second in the Youth sprint where she established a new 200m British record of 12.85 secs. Riding in the Junior Championship above her age category she took bronze medals in the pursuit and the 500m sprint, silver in the National junior road race Championship, and won the 5 event Essex International Tour National Circuit race series by a devastating 8 minutes.
Matthew, who races in the LC3 category, which means that he can only pedal with one leg, in his first International event, the Paralympic World Cup, won two golds, in the 200 m and 1,000 m Time Trials, where he beat the reigning Paralympic Champion and World kilometre record holder.