‘Sporting mensches’ is a series in which host Laragh Widdess interviews people who’ve made an outstanding contribution to sport in Israel – whether on the field, the pitch, the court, or behind the scenes.

I bet you didn’t know that in 1968 Israel hosted the Paralympic Games. You probably also had no idea that Israel’s athletes have had far more success at the Paralympics than at the Olympics. When you see Israel’s Paralympic athletes doing well, the chances are Willem Luyckx has had something to do with it – he’s the head trainer of the Israeli Paralympic track and field team.

A Dutch athlete and track-and-field trainer, Willem moved to Israel in 1990. Now he trains mostly blind runners, including Gaddi Yarkoni, who competed in the London 2012 blind marathon, and has already achieved the qualifying time for the blind marathon at Rio 2016.

Willem explains the differences between training runners who were born blind and those who became blind later in life, including some who were injured in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He highlights the importance of the runner’s guide; one of Israel’s top blind runners, Avi Salomon, is guided by the Israeli marathon record holder and former national champion.

And he tells us the story of Yaniv Musarski, a man with cerebral palsy who ran the Tiberias marathon this year – one of only 20-or-so such athletes in the world to have run a marathon.

Song credit: Iron Maiden – The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner

This is a segment from It Takes All Sports: Listen to the full show.