Mar 18 2010
Advanced Composites Group Ltd (ACG), a member of the Composites Division of Umeco plc, is proud to cosponsor 38 year old skier Sean Rose in his bid to win a gold medal in the Paralympics Alpine Skiing event at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, which will take place between the 6 and 21 March.
To help him achieve his Olympic dream, British number one, double World Cup medallist in 2009 and World and European champion, Sean Rose will receive assistance from ACG UK in the form of high performance prepreg materials and Moldex Composites Pvt Ltd which will provide design and manufacturing expertise at their state of the art composites facility in Surat, Gujarat in India.
Moldex Composites, a British-Indian enterprise, will use ACG's Variable Temperature Moulding prepreg materials to manufacture equipment for Sean. VTM260 Series prepregs have seen considerable success across a range of applications, particularly in the sports and leisure sector. These toughened resin systems offer excellent handling and processing characteristics and are available on a wide range of reinforcements in both standard prepreg (woven and unidirectional) and ZPREG selective impregnation formats.
In February 2000 Sean had an alpine skiing accident which left him with a broken back and paralysed from the chest down. After a series of operations to stabilise his back, Sean returned to one of the sports he loved and, taking like a duck to water, he soon made the British Disabled Water Ski Team. Surprised by the level of competition, training paid off and he took the Overall Disabled World Championship title in 2005, the European Overall title in 2006 and, as part of the winning British Team, the World Champions 2005 and 2007, but that's not the full story.
With a constant desire to return to alpine skiing, Sean moved to Kimberley, BC, Canada, and rekindled his dream when he was offered a place in the Disabled Race Training Programme. After working the slopes 5 days a week to perfect his techniques, he eventually joined the British Disabled Ski Team in 2003 and spent the early season training in Europe and followed the Europa Cup circuit.
To date, Sean has collected over 20 international medals, taking two World Cup Medals in January 2009 at Sestriere. His ultimate dream though is a medal at the Winter Paralympics in March 2010. ACG hopes that the combination of its advanced composite materials and Moldex Composites' expertise will help Sean realise that dream.