The team of Welsh inventors behind a unique powered stretching machine have won the top award at the International Invention show of the Middle East (IIME) in Kuwait.
The Sports Injury Rehabilitation Assistant (SIRA) – the first powered stretching machine of its kind – earned Robert Clarke and John Lockwood of Gorseinon, the gold medal for the best medical device at the show and also the best invention at the show which carries a US $15,000 prize.
IIME is the second largest such fair in the world after the Geneva Convention where this year SIRA also won The World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Gold Medal for Best Inventors 2010 – the first time in its fifteen years history that this award has been won by the UK.
Sportfit – the company set up to develop, manufacture and market SIRA – was invited to attend IIME following their success in Geneva and had their accommodation and living expenses paid during their five day visit to Kuwait.
Deputy Minister for Science, Innovation and Skills, Lesley Griffiths has congratulated the team for their outstanding success.
“This is great news for Sportfit, the company developing SIRA and great news for Wales. It is a tremendous achievement and certainly puts Wales in the international spotlight.
“Our economic renewal strategy highlights the need to encourage businesses to invest in R&D and to harness the commercial opportunities of innovation and research. It is therefore very encouraging to see a start up business like Sportfit doing just that.
”I met Robert and John earlier this year following their success in Geneva and was very impressed by SIRA and would like to congratulate them on their latest success.”
John Lockwood said SIRA attracted considerable interest at the Fair,
“Ours was the only fully interactive stand at the fair and more than 300 people tried out the machine which aids fitness and injury rehabilitation.
“The event was a tremendous networking opportunity; we made a number of important and useful contacts and had great exposure for SIRA. The icing on the cake was winning best in show – it was more than we could have hoped for.”
The team behind the invention bring their individual strengths to the partnership. Robert Clarke, who runs his own fitness centre in Gorseinon, has worked with more than 300,000 clients in the UK and US during his thirty-year career as a personal trainer.
During that time, he developed a specific training regime for stretching and conditioning a range of muscles while entrepreneur and inventor John Lockwood developed the device that replicates those exercises.
SIRA is a powered stretching aid – that the user controls – which stretches the entire posterior muscles groups in two movements. It has an electronic timer, heart rate monitor, is wi-fi enabled with a touch screen displaying real time information.
In-built sensors measure, track and store information from each session providing a benchmark measurement enabling trainers, coaches and physiotherapists to manage training or rehabilitation programmes better.
IIME brought together the most prominent world inventors and showcased more than 150 inventions from 37 countries, representing the latest scientific achievements.
