Georgie Hermitage breaks her own 400m World Record

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Firefly Orthoses wearer, Georgie Hermitage bettered her T37 400-metre World Record at the IPC Grand Prix in London recently. 26 year-old Georgie beat her previous World Record set in Berlin on June 20th, crossing the line in London’s Olympic Stadium in a time of one minute 2.48 seconds. Her new time shaved .22 of a second of her previous record. Georgie competes in the T37 400m event. The International Paralympic Committee allocates the T37 classification for athletes with athetosis, ataxi and/or hypertonia. She is also a member of the women’s 4X100m GB squad.

Georgie has Cerebral Palsy, but the condition is only evident on close inspection. She is a patient of Katrina Waller, Clinical Lead and Podiatrist at Compleet Feet in Sussex. On her clinic blog, Katrina outlines that following a biomechanical assessment she could see how the condition was effecting Georgie’s running. Katrina outlines how Cerebral Palsy impacts Georgie’s movement; ‘… there being some muscle weakness and reduced muscle build on the left, but this does not slow her down or affect the quality of her life, far from it. She has found she can run better than many athletes’.

As her Podiatrist, Katrina identified a ‘tightness of her tendo-achilles and calf muscles meaning she has a functional shorter leg, with the foot tending to roll inwards. What we term over-pronation. Georgie is having to work the left lower limb hard to compensate, and the right side takes a lot of the strain. Not an ideal situation if you are trying to run super efficiently’. Georgie wears prescription Firefly orthoses in her running shoes. The orthoses are custom-designed to support Georgie’s foot to prevent over-pronatory stress. Katrina describes the benefit of Firefly Orthoses, ‘they allow Georgie run like an athlete, keep up with the high training demands placed upon her, helping her to secure her place to run in the 2016 Rio Paralympics’. You can read Katrina’s full blog post on Georgie here. Georgie intends to represent Great Britain at the IPC European Championships in Swansea in August as she builds towards her goal of competing for a medal at Rio 2016. All at Firefly Orthoses are wishing Georgie the best of luck and continued success!