By Owen Morgan
Three-time double world champion and double Paralympic champion Aled Sion Davies MBE has picked up yet another prestigious title.
The Bridgend athlete won the sport category at the 2018 St David’s Awards ceremony held at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay.
The Awards were created in 2014 to recognise the great deeds and often extraordinary contributions made by people from all walks of life in Wales.
Nominated by the public, the winners are decided upon by the First Minister Carwyn Jones and his advisers.
As well as sport, categories include innovation, science and technology; bravery; enterprise; citizenship and culture.
Discus and shot put champion Davies was chosen ahead of Ospreys, Wales and Lions legend Alun Wyn Jones and fellow Paralympic athlete Hollie Arnold MBE, who broke her own javelin world record at the 2017 IPC Athletics World Championships in London.
Previous winners of the award include the Welsh international football team, for their exploits at Euro 2016; World, Olympic, and Commonwealth gold medal-winning cyclist Geraint Thomas and wheelchair athlete Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson, who amassed a remarkable Paralympic medal haul of 11 golds, four silvers and a bronze.
Speaking after this week’s ceremony, Davies said: “I’m so honoured to have been awarded the St David’s award for sport. To make the final amongst some world class athletes was humbling, but to win it, I’m just blown away.
“To get this St David’s award is something very special that I will cherish. Wales is a beautiful place, it’s not very big but it’s a very powerful place and to see the power amongst all the categories and nominees tonight and the impact they’re having on the world, it’s truly phenomenal.
“I feel bad going up there because all I do is throw something further than anyone else in the world, and they’re actually making a massive difference. But for me, I’m trying to inspire the next generation and put disability on the map.”
Davies’ nomination for the award described him as: “An inspirational role model for young people from Wales and the world – both as world champion athlete and as a young man who has dealt positively with disability.”
Born with a combined disability of talipes and Hemi-hemilia, Davies has extremely limited functionality in his right leg.
In 2005 he was invited to Cardiff by Federation of Disability Sport Wales to try out athletics with a group of elite paralympians.
It was during this practice session Davies first picked up a shot put and discus and he instantly showed a natural talent for throwing. He went on to win a gold and bronze medal at that London 2012 Paralympic Games and a gold at the Rio games in 2016.
He set a new world record of 17.52m to win gold in the F42 shot put at the 2017 London World Para-athletics Championships. Having already claimed gold in the F42 discus, this was the third time in succession the 26-year-old had triumphed in both events at the competition.
Earlier this year he finished sixth in the shot put at the British Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham against a field of able-bodied athletes.
First Minister Carwyn Jones said of the award winners: “I know there are exceptional things being performed by inspirational and aspiring people here in Wales. As I travel across the country, I get to see first-hand the efforts that people make, day in day out to make our small but mighty country great.
“The St David Awards give us a chance to celebrate those people who go the extra mile often without the recognition they deserve.”