{"id":118834,"date":"2026-04-24T10:51:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/former-semi-pro-footballer-set-to-make-commonwealth-games-debut\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:51:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:51:20","slug":"former-semi-pro-footballer-set-to-make-commonwealth-games-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/24\/former-semi-pro-footballer-set-to-make-commonwealth-games-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"Former semi-pro footballer set to make Commonwealth Games debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_7c26c0\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Athletics swooped in to fill his sporting demand and Nicholls has gone from strength to strength as a seated thrower.<\/h2>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37060560\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Taz Nicholls will make his Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Taz Nicholls will make his Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Para-thrower Taz Nicholls replaced an obsession with football to become one of Europe\u2019s most fearsome discus athletes, but the beautiful game has never been far from his mind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The 38-year-old Barnet athlete was an accomplished amateur football player before a severe leg injury in 2013 cut his career short. Athletics swooped in to fill his sporting demand and Nicholls has gone from strength to strength as a seated thrower.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He will wear red and white in Glasgow this summer and being selected by Team England for the <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/commonwealth-games\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Commonwealth Games<\/a> and can\u2019t wait to perform in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He said: \u201cI\u2019m quite new to athletics. I wasn&#8217;t ready to finish competing after my injury and I was working one day at the college football academy in the gym, trying to make my leg work again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;I was adamant I was going to prove everyone wrong and recover but an athletics coach came in and told me to stop being a so-and-so, and that football is over but there are many more things.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cHe marched me over to a computer and three hours later, I had a meeting with a coach and a classification date, and it went from there.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cLuckily, we were still on a high from London 2012, so it was good for me. We emailed GB athletics, and they said, \u2018You\u2019re a big guy &#8211; you\u2019re a thrower\u2019, and that was it. I have had other interests on my journey, but stuck to athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"image-group\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX false\" data-testid=\"imageembed-37060497\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37060497\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"image\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Thomas Young, Ellis Kottas, Taz Nicholls, Zac Shaw and Maddie Down are Ready to Win in Glasgow\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"(max-width: 458px) 458px, (max-width: 615px) 615px, 1200px\" src=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37060497.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_MD602059.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37060497.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s458b\/0_MD602059.jpg 458w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37060497.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_MD602059.jpg 615w, https:\/\/i2-prod.mirror.co.uk\/article37060497.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s1200e\/0_MD602059.jpg 1200w\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"Thomas Young, Ellis Kottas, Taz Nicholls, Zac Shaw and Maddie Down are Ready to Win in Glasgow\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Thomas Young, Ellis Kottas, Taz Nicholls, Zac Shaw and Maddie Down are Ready to Win in Glasgow<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/div>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Just five years after choosing athletics, Nicholls was selected by Great Britain for the European Championships in Berlin, where he finished fifth in the F44 discus competition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He said: \u201cIt\u2019s the highest honour you can have to represent your country. I was very nervous because normally it\u2019s your little community at a competition and now all of a sudden I\u2019ve got Germany and Estonia, and the Czech Republic alongside me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cYou\u2019re sitting there thinking, \u2018Oh my God, this is real. This is happening.\u2019 It\u2019s quite a nice little community usually. There aren\u2019t too many seated throwers, so often at a competition it\u2019s the same faces, so you get to know your competitors and you become a little community. It\u2019s a good little group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">One of those faces is that of Dan Greaves, the godfather of English para-throwing, who is still competing aged 43. Greaves first appeared on the international stage with a silver medal at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000, since adding five Olympic medals, three World titles, four European Championships, and a gold in Glasgow at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Nicholls said: \u201cHe\u2019s a legend in the sport. You don\u2019t go this long and compete at the highest level and not be an aspirational figure for people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cI was lucky enough to go to the Europeans with him, and I just studied him. I learnt a lot and he\u2019s always there to help and ask any questions if you need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">But even after a decade in athletics, Nicholls still enjoys other sports, not least his old flame of football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He said: \u201cI think I\u2019ll be laser-focused, but it\u2019s hard because my F57 discus event is on the penultimate day. I\u2019m interested in swimming, especially. I\u2019m most excited to see the area. You always hear about the Rangers-Celtic rivalry, so it will be nice to see what that is like.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><em>Team England are Ready to Win at the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Keep up to date on<\/em> <\/strong><a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/teamengland.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><em>https:\/\/teamengland.org\/<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/sport\/other-sports\/athletics\/former-semi-pro-footballer-set-37060553\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Athletics swooped in to fill his sporting demand and Nicholls has gone from strength to strength as a seated thrower. Taz Nicholls will make his Commonwealth Games debut in Glasgow Para-thrower Taz Nicholls replaced an obsession with football to become one of Europe\u2019s most fearsome discus athletes, but the beautiful game has never been far [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[1006],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}