Two Bradford runners with learning disabilities are hoping to strike gold at the World Indoor Athletics Champion-ships which began in Poland today.

Thomas Poulton-White, from Allerton, and Rizwan Abbas Khan, a member of Bradford Airedale Athletics Club, are competing in the athletics arena on the outskirts of Warsaw.

Thomas, who works at the University of Bradford as a cleaner, has been given free use of the University Sports Centre gym to train for the 60m event.

He will then travel to Tunisia in July for the World Track and Field Championships where he will compete in the 100m, 200m and long jump as well as the sprint relays.

Thomas said: "I hope to do really well and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I win. My heroes are sprinters Mark Lewis-Francis and Maurice Greene."

Thomas, 23, is following a training programme set out by an athletics coach and physiotherapist. He trains for at least an hour a day, six times a week.

And the training programme seems to be working - Thomas is currently running 100m in 11.15 seconds. He continues to improve his running time each year. Just over a year ago his personal best was 11.4 seconds.

Thomas has previously secured two bronze medals for Great Britain in the 100m and a silver in the 200m.

Rizwan, who is nicknamed Barney after The Flintstones cartoon character he watched avidly as a child, is relying on sponsorship money to allow him to compete.

Enough cash was raised to enable the 18-year-old to go to the World Indoor Championships.

But unless his club sprint coach Brian Elsey keeps the sponsorship money coming in, Barney may have to miss out on the World Outdoor Championships in Sweden in July.

Elsey said: "We have raised the £900 necessary for a carer and Rizwan to go to Poland, but I just don't know what will happen about Sweden.

"Maybe we will get some help from the First Bradford bus company, but it is more difficult raising money when you are going back to the same people again."

Elsey can remember his first meeting with Barney. He said: "It was about three years ago and was part of the club's link-up with Bradford Sport and Education. They sent a group of boys and girls down to us who had learning difficulties, and one of them was Rizwan.

"He was a footballer at the time, but I recognised his athletic talent, although it took him about a year to settle down and really take to it."

Last year Rizwan competed in the European Athletics Championship for People with a Learning Disability in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. He set a lifetime best of 11.94sec in finishing fifth in his 100m semi-final, just missing out on progressing.

In Poland, Barney will be competing in the 60m and the long jump, and Elsey added: "It is difficult to quantify how well Barney will do.

"Obviously he will be competing against a bigger pool of athletes than in the Europeans, and we won't know just how many, or even how many heats there will be, until after he flies out there.

"But I am convinced he will do a good time in Poland. He has a hand-held time of 7.45sec from training, and I think he can get down to about seven seconds. I also hope the organisers will bake him a cake as he will be 19 on Friday! I also know he is proud to be representing Bradford."

Potential sponsors can contact Elsey on 01757 288939 or 0797 1220737.