Half of 12-15-year-olds get first COVID jab, as Lincolnshire hits over 200k boosters

Sophie Wells MBE is the most decorated Olympian/Paralympian in Lincolnshire’s history, with eight medals to her name, but says she still strives for excellence and is looking to add to her medal collection at the next Games in 2024.

Sophie, 31, is an incredibly successful dressage rider who has claimed medals at the last three Paralympic Games, most recently winning a silver and a gold in Tokyo this summer.

She was born with amniotic band syndrome, which results in having little to no feeling or movement in her feet, as well as losing a number of fingers, but the Lincoln-born para-equestrian rider is a fierce competitor who has always had steely determination during her rise to glory.

Sophie now lives in Saxilby and after growing up on a cattle farm with her parents, she describes herself as “just a farmer’s daughter from Lincoln with big dreams”.

The Lincolnite caught up with the eight-time Paralympic medallist at her training base in Harby, discussing her career in dressage, how she managed a potential COVID crisis before the Games in Tokyo, and buying a dog in lockdown.

“The horses help drop you down to reality”, says Sophie, as she trots out to her riding hall with Don Cara M, the horse she rode at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.

“I went from winning a Paralympic medal to mucking out the horses within a day of each other!”

Sophie went into the Games this year with a perhaps surprising lack of optimism on the surface (she’d already won medals on the grandest stage in previous Paralympics) – but there were plenty of headaches along the way to justify this.

She said: “My usual horse George (known professionally as C Fatal Attraction) got injured before the Games so we had to adjust to Donny (Don Cara M) instead.

“George is the current world champion, so it was always going to be tough to replicate that on another horse. It is so important to know the horses and their personalities, because obviously you can’t communicate with them like you would a human.”

Sophie also tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks before flying out to Tokyo, which very nearly shattered her Paralympic dream.

“It was touch and go right up to the last moment,” she said. “The team doctors were worried we wouldn’t make it, so when we got the all clear and I could compete it was a weight off my shoulders.

“I naturally put a lot of pressure on myself, and because of our previous success we always have a target on our backs as Team GB in this event, but because of the circumstances our expectations were quite low.”

Despite this, Sophie performed incredibly to take home a silver in the individual test grade five, and astonishingly took the gold in the team event alongside Sir Lee Pearson and Natasha Baker.

She said of her performance: “I’m normally quite hard-faced and keep my emotions in check out there, but the second it was over I just cried my eyes out. The pandemic definitely played into the emotions of the event, it was a huge relief above all else.”

Wells had come full circle all over again. She started riding horses at eight-years-old, but didn’t take up dressage until a few years later when she “kept falling off” her horse.

After leaving the University of Lincoln in 2009, Sophie became the first dressage rider to compete in both an able-bodied and para-dressage team in the same year, as well as winning multiple titles across Europe.

She then soared to stardom at London 2012, where she won team gold and two silvers in the individual and freestyle competition, which resulted in a golden postbox in Lincoln’s Bailgate, as well as an MBE in 2013 and appearances at Sports Personality of the Year.

It brought unprecedented attention to Sophie and the sport of dressage, which Wells poignantly defined as “dancing horses” when we asked what the sport entailed.

“The Olympics and Paralympics completely encompasses everything about this country, everyone forgets about real life for a bit and we feel the buzz of the nation.

“In London for instance, there were 12,000 people in the stadium watching me do what I do most days on my own, I’ve never seen a crowd like that for dancing horses!”

She then went one step better in Rio four years later, defending team gold and again winning silver in the freestyle, but this time winning individual gold for the first time in her career.

Her two medals in Tokyo were the seventh and eighth of her Paralympic career, further cementing her place in Lincolnshire folklore as the person with more Olympic and Paralympic medals than anyone in the county’s history.

Sophie said the pressure was reduced in Tokyo, allowing for her to perhaps enjoy it a bit more.

“I’ve always found it more enjoyable being the underdog, we felt like we let the country down in London because I didn’t win all three golds. I think I’ve become more rational as I’ve got older, so now I can be thrilled with silver, given the circumstances.”

Sophie had to wait a year for the Paralympic Games to even take place, as coronavirus put a halt to proceedings for 2020, meaning she had a year of no competition and lockdown.

You might be wondering how a successful sports star coped through coronavirus lockdown… Sophie told us a post graduate diploma and binge watching her new favourite series was on the agenda.

“I’ve never been much of a TV series person, but through lockdown I had more time on my hands, so ended up watching Grey’s Anatomy,” Sophie said. “I am now obsessed with it, I even got a lockdown puppy and called it Bailey after one of the characters.

“I also decided to pursue a post graduate diploma in sports coaching, it was hard to adjust to lockdown in general. I’d competed in a championship every single year from the moment I left school, so to go from that to nothing at all was really bizarre.”

Sophie is now taking a keen interest in coaching, but will continue to compete herself and insists she is fully committed to going for more medals in Paris in 2024.

When asked what advice she would give to any hopeful athlete, Sophie said: “Don’t let anyone else put a limitation on you. Find a passion and stick with it, just remember that the moments of glory are minutes in history that do not last.

“You’ve got to appreciate the sacrifices you have to make and the hard work you have to put in to reap the rewards. I think what some people struggle to deal with is understanding that our lives happen in four year cycles, all for that four to five minutes we are out there competing.”

Christmas decorations outside a house in Market Rasen, put up by a 12-year-old boy, have been vandalised and stolen by “senseless” thieves.

Lou Rutherford told The Lincolnite that her son Ashten, 12, wanted to put up some Christmas decorations outside his house in Market Rasen on Sunday, December 5, but his joy was only short-lived as later that evening they were damaged by vandals.

A wire on the lights had been cut and they made off with “half a set of lights” according to Lou, who said her son was “so proud of his work”.

The vandals seemingly failed in their mission, as the lights they stole were useless without the remaining lights and plug socket they came with when undamaged.

Lou says she has CCTV footage of those involved and has passed that on to Lincolnshire Police for them to investigate.

“Sadly it would seem we were not the only people targeted by what would appear to be random acts of vandalism,” says Lou, after other reports of decorations being stolen in the local area were also filed.

A light-up Santa Claus was also stolen from the front garden of one of Lou’s neighbours, which has since been found and returned, prompting suspicions that it was the same culprits that damaged Ashten’s lights.

Market Rasen Police said that the force has noticed “a number of social media posts” on Market Rasen community pages in relation to stolen or damaged Christmas lights in the area.

They did, however, say that just one incident was reported to them in relation to this, and that was regarding the stolen Santa and not the Christmas lights, and are urging people to report their incidents on 101 so the force can properly investigate.

Cllr Stephen Bunney, Liberal Democrat member of Lincolnshire County Council, West Lindsey District Council and Market Rasen Town Council, said: “I was sad to learn that some members of our community have been vandalising Christmas decorations around the town. It is such a pity that the efforts of those who want to bring seasonal cheer to the area are ruined by antisocial behaviour of the few.”

Health secretary Sajid Javid has told MPs the government is leaving “nothing to chance,” as COVID cases in Greater Lincolnshire on Monday increased by nearly three quarters week-on-week.

Mr Javid told the House of Commons: “The Omicron variant is continuing to spread here and around the world.” There were 90 new cases of Omicron confirmed across the UK Monday, including 64 in England.

It means there have so far been 336 confirmed cases ‚ though experts predict there are many more undetected, with Omicron set to take over from Delta in the coming weeks.

“This includes cases with no links to international travel. So we can conclude that there is now community transmission across multiple regions of England,” said Mr Javid.

The latest COVID stats for Greater Lincolnshire on Monday are:

• 974 new cases of coronavirus with 584 in Lincolnshire, 208 in North East Lincolnshire and 182 in North Lincolnshire.
• No further deaths were recorded in the government figures for Lincolnshire
• Four hospital deaths were recorded in the latest figures

The daily figure is 74.87% higher than last Monday’s 557 cases.

Nationally, 51,459 new COVID cases were confirmed while 41 deaths were also reported.

The government confirmed that from Monday, December 6, anyone above the age of 12 wishing to travel to the UK will need to show a negative pre-departure test within 48 hours of departure.

Under the latest measures, airlines will be required to check for pre-departure tests alongside completed Passenger Locator Forms, and passengers will not be allowed to board a flight without providing evidence of a negative test result.

It comes as Nigeria is added to the travel red list due to 21 cases of the new Omicron variant being linked to the country.

Mr Javid said: “We’re learning more about this new variant all the time.

“Recent analysis from the UK Health Security Agency suggests that the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for the Omicron variant than for the Delta variant — but we don’t yet have a complete picture of whether Omicron causes more severe disease or indeed how it interacts with the vaccines.

“So we can’t say for certain at this point whether Omicron has the potential to knock us off our road to recovery.

“We are leaving nothing to chance. Our strategy is to buy ourselves time and to strengthen our defences while our world leading scientists assessed this new variant, and what it means for our fight against COVID-19.”

Mr Javid told MPs the government was trying to bring more hotels on board to provide capacity for those self-isolating and hoped to double the number in the next week.

He said tougher action now was hoped to prevent more cases later on. He also promised: “We won’t keep these measures in place for a day longer than we have to.”

Cases in Greater Lincolnshire levelled off to a 5% week-on-week rise over the weekend but had previously jumped 50%.

The weekly total at 5,088 cases was up 5.64% from the previous week’s 4,816.

There were 21 deaths in Lincolnshire compared to 18 last week and 20 hospital deaths were recorded, up from 13.

Mr Javid confirmed the government had now hit a milestone of 20 million booster doses and added there would be further expansion of the programme.

This included 10,000 more vaccinators and 1,500 pharmacy sites across England.