Town Hall goes gold for Paralympic glory

Mansfield’s Old Town Hall will be lit up in gold this weekend in honour of Paralympic Champion Charlotte Henshaw’s success at Tokyo 2020.

This will coincide with The National Lottery's ParalympicsGB Homecoming event, which will take place at The SSE Arena, Wembley on Sunday (12 September).

Lighting the historic building is just one way that Mansfield District Council plans to mark the latest achievements of paracanoeist Charlotte, who clocked up a Paralympic Best time of 50.760 seconds to take gold in the KL2 kayak race at the recent Paralympics. ‘Congratulations Charlotte’ banners featuring official photos of the race and medal ceremony will soon be on display around the Bentinck Memorial.

Charlotte is travelling to Denmark to compete in the World Championships next week so any further celebrations will have to wait until her return.

Executive Mayor Andy Abrahams said: “We are all so proud of Charlotte, who is not only a fantastic ambassador for sport and disability sport but also for Mansfield.

"To compete at four Paralympic Games and move so seamlessly from being top of her game in the pool to Paralympic Champion, three-time World Champion and European Champion on the water, truly is a remarkable feat.

“We send her our very best wishes for further success at the World Championships in Copenhagen and we look forward to recognising her Paralympic achievement on her return.”

Charlotte said: “I am massively happy and excited with how I performed in Tokyo. I’m gutted I can’t be at the homecoming event in London due to the World Championships so it’s really nice that Mansfield wants to celebrate.

“Hometown support is really important to me. The council and local people have done so much to support sporting stars for such a long time and I am really thankful that the support I received when I was swimming has continued since I moved to canoeing. I am really grateful to everyone and hopefully I can put Mansfield on the map as I’ve lived here pretty much my whole life.”

Charlotte now has a full set of Paralympic medals with the gold joining the silver and bronze medals she won in the breaststroke in London and Rio.

Published: September 11th 2021