Month: August 2016

12/08/2016

YPSP: Caitlyn Ross – July 2016

Well what can I say about this season so far? For me it’s been an amazing season so far and I hope it continues. It shows that hard work does pays off. It shows that all the hard work that I put in during winter training is starting to show in my performance at competitions.

It started to really show at one of my biggest competitions of the year at the Mencap Games in Barnsley at the end of June. I got three golds and one silver medal.

My first event was the 100m, I came in second and my time wasn’t my best but I tried my best. Next was shot putt, I came in first with a personal best of 8.10m. This was my first time over the 8m mark and I was so happy that if I could do cartwheels I would have done them!

The next event I had was discus which I won gold in and I was so close to my personal best. It was frustrating since I had done so well in my shot putt.

My last event at the Mencap Games was javelin where I won gold. I didn’t think I would get it as javelin isn’t my strongest throwing event but then I remembered what my coaches told me at training, to relax, and I managed to break the National Games Record for my age group which I had got last year.

The next competition I was competing in was Forth Valley Flyers Championships.

I won four gold medals. My first event was the 100m where I was first. I was a lot faster than I was at the Mencap games the week before. I then had to go straight to shot putt as I had been shouted for that at the same time as the 100m.

Shot putt went well but it wasn’t my best throw, however it was close to my personal best. The next event was javelin and I did not do too well as I was a bit further away from my personal best. My last event of the competition was discus and it was an amazing end to the competition. It was my best throw of the day with a new personal best of 21.18m, I was over the moon with this achievement as I was only aiming for 20m as my last personal best was 19.94m.

My next competition is the Wishaw Games on 13 August 2016 and I hope to keep up my success and hope to keep getting better and breaking my personal bests.

Caitlyn Ross
Scottish Disability Sport Young Persons’ Sport Panel

11/08/2016

Tayside Two Feature in Celtic Cup Win

Saturday 6^th and Sunday 7^th August saw Scotland’s Under 23 Wheelchair Basketball squad face off against Wales and Northern Ireland in the Celtic Cup. After a hard-fought four games, Scotland came away with a well-earned gold.

Tayside residents Gemma Lumsdaine and Ben Leitch were part of this triumphant win for Scotland.

After a dedicated period of strength and conditioning work, Gemma maintained her established place within Scotland’s team. Gemma dedicates her spare time to progressing the sport of wheelchair basketball and recently featured on the Young Women’s Movement 30 under 30 in Scotland.

When asked about their Celtic Cup victory, Gemma said “Playing as part of the Scotland U23 squad was an incredible privilege. Each game was tough but we worked hard and played as a team.”

Ben Leitch triumphantly earned himself a spot as a reserve for this year’s Celtic Cup squad at the age of 14. Ben answered his country’s call when a last minute injury left the squad down a player. A fantastic opportunity and experience for Ben.

Both Gemma and Ben will be competing for their country at the British Wheelchair Basketball Championships alongside Tayside wheelchair basketballers Murran Mackay and Blair Marshall. Ben and Gemma will also feature in the highly anticipated School Games this September in Loughborough.

11/08/2016

Fife athlete to watch – Sam Fernando

As well as celebrating the inclusion of three Fife athletes in the Great Britain team for Rio and taking a trip down memory lane to remember great Fife Paralympians of the past, Disability Sport Fife is keen to showcase the Fife athletes to watch for the future.

18 year old Sam Fernando from Gateside and Fife Athletic Club Club was classified T20 with support from Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and Disability Sport Fife (DSF) shortly after his 16th birthday and still a pupil at Bell Baxter High School. As a Fife AC member, Sam initially came under the wing of Dave Francis but then progressed to Ron Morrison’s squad at St Andrews in 2015 and he has not looked back since.

Sam has the advantage and challenge of training along with a very successful performance squad that includes 2016 Great Britain Paralympian Derek Rae from Kirkcaldy. Derek not surprisingly is a huge influence on Sam, as is T20 international athlete Owen Miller from Dunfermline and Fife AC who is coached by Steve Doig. Sam was awarded the Gilbert Trophy at the 2015 DSF Track and Field Championships as the leading Fife junior and the Ben Mills Trophy at the 2016 DSF Track and Field Championships as the overall best performer.

1500 metres is the Paralympic distance available to T20 athletes and from 2013 to the present Sam lowered his personal best time from 5:21.70 to 4:24.51. In the UK rankings for T20 1500 metres, Sam is ranked 8 and he will return to Bedford in August to defend the T20 under 20 1500 metres title. Sam is currently ranked 1 under 20 for 3000 metres, ranked 2 for all T20 age groups over 5000 metres and ranked 4 for all age groups over 10,000 metres.

From the moment Bell Baxter HS staff member Fiona Stewart introduced Sam to the DSF and SDS cross country and track and field programme he has made exceptional progress. Over the past two years the Ron Morrison coaching influence has been considerable and there are many who believe this young Fife athlete has a very bright future. Not surprisingly Scottish Athletics staff support and expertise have been invaluable.

Behind every successful performance athlete there is a supportive family and Sam’s parents have provided all the necessary resources from day one. Sam’s father played a key role when he was selected for the Kingdom Athletics Team that finished third in the Premier Division Youth Development League. Sam recorded personal best times for 1500 metres, 3000 metres and 2000 metres steeplechase. A remarkable series of quality performances for the young Fife athlete.
Sam Fernando was born to run. As a first year Bell Baxter HS pupil his cross country times were impressive and his present UK rankings confirm this early promise. On a recent family holiday to Sri Lanka, Sam seized every opportunity to run in the tropical heat on local beaches, village roads, cricket grounds and even on Independence Square in the centre of Colombo. Sam impressed local observers as he has school staff, DSF and Fife AC personnel since day one. Sam Fernando is definitely one to watch and well done to the support team who have played such an important part in his development.

Richard Brickley MBE
President Disability Sport Fife

08/08/2016

Archery GB Seek Independent Directors

Archery GB is the recognised Governing Body for archery in the UK. It has a rapidly growing membership, a full calendar of competitions up and down the country, a strong volunteer workforce and over 1,000 clubs supported through a county and regional structure. Employees based in Lilleshall, Shropshire, provide membership services, help clubs to develop, deliver talent pathways and support our performance teams and archers. At a European and World level, our archers regularly win medals – both youth and senior and also able-bodied and disabled. Archery was seen as one of the most outstanding spectator experiences at the Olympics in 2012 and the European Championships was successfully held in the UK in 2016.

Following a governance review, Archery GB has moved from an executive Board to a strategic skills-based Board. It is seeking to recruit two additional Independent Directors (from without its membership) to lead on Nomination and Audit & Risk. You will be part of four Independent Directors, eight other Elected Directors (from within the membership) and the Chief Executive who form the Board.

Job Description

A full job description is available at http://www.archerygb.org/documents_governance.php in the Vacancies folder.

How to apply

Please send your CV and letter of application by email to nominations@archerygb.org stating your area or areas of interest (Nominations and/or Audit & Risk). Requests for informal/confidential discussions can also be sent to this email address.

Important Dates

Closing Date: 22 August 2016

Interview Date: 3 September 2016, Central London

Archery GB is the trading name of the Grand National Archery Society, a company limited by guarantee no. 1342150 Registered in England.

08/08/2016

2016 Para Bowls Scottish Championships

A significant recent development in Para-bowls has been the inclusion of a series of national competitions within the mainstream championships organised by Bowls Scotland at Northfield, Ayr. The event is coordinated over a weekend by Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and the leading male and female Scottish players in the B6, B7 and B8 classes are invited to compete in their respective sections. Recent initiatives by SDS and partners have led to an increase in physically disabled players with performance potential in Scotland and a number of the newcomers made their mark at Ayr this month.

This was year two of the event and Disability Sport Fife (DSF) was well represented once again, although world champion Martin Hunter from Burntisland had to call off through injury. Martin’s international team mate and defending champion Michael Simpson from Auchtermuchty and Strathmiglo BC had another fine tournament in the B7/B8 class, losing narrowly in the semi final 20-21 to Ian Brown from Kilbirnie.

Two DSF members, international Barbara McMillan from Cowdenbeath and newcomer Mary Wilson from Edinburgh contested the ladies open semi final with Mary winning through to the final 19-18. In the final she met experienced bowler Tracy Black from Alloa who was also making her first appearance in a major Para–bowls competition. Mary clearly has a future in Para-bowls but on this occasion she found her Central Scotland opponent just too strong.

Scottish international Billy Allan from Cowdenbeath has a fine home record in major competitions and once again he reached a B6 final. On this occasion he came up against new find Mike Nichol from Jedburgh who played an impressive semi final tie against international Gary Clelland. Billy had to settle for an excellent silver medal performance when he went down 12-21 to his Borders opponent in the B6 final.

There is no doubt that in one year the quality of physically disabled bowler contesting all of the three sections at Northfield has risen dramatically. This is great news as Scotland prepares for the Commonwealth Games in Australia, the Home Nations in 2017 in Wales and the next IBD World Championships.

Photo: Billy Allan and Michael Simpson

Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife

05/08/2016

British Blind Sport Distribute First Steps Packs

British Blind Sport have been working in partnership with Scottish Disability Sport in order to distribute First Steps packs across Scotland.

The First Steps packs are free activity packs for children with a visual impairment, containing a jingle ball, activity booklet, reward chart, pump and balloon.

The aim of the First Steps packs is to encourage children with a visual impairment across Scotland to take part in more physical activity and sport. The project has seen a phenomenal amount of support from organisations such as Blind Children UK, RNIB Scotland and Visibility. Former Paralympic judoka and bronze medallist Ben Quilter has shown his support of the project on Twitter.
There are currently 54 children with a visual impairment signed up to the project and interest and publicity in First Steps is growing. This week was a momentous time for British Blind Sport which saw the dispatch of packs to these children across Scotland. British Blind Sport are excited to find out whether First Steps makes a tangible difference through sport in Scotland.
With the project running until the end of October, there is still time to sign up for your free First Steps pack. To find out more, please contact Jennifer Scally on 0131 317 1130 or firststeps@britishblindsport.org.uk.

05/08/2016

2016 Summer Sports Camp

Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) joined forces with Short Breaks fund, Wheelpower and Celtic FC Foundation to run a 4 day residential sports summer camp for 40 young people with a physical or sensory impairment – which included 25 wheelchair users. The aim of the camp is to introduce participants to a range of activities in a fun, active and safe environment.

All participants have been signposted to local activity and will receive a follow-up after 6 months to determine what activity they have accessed following the camp.

All sessions were led by qualified coaches currently involved in the Scottish Disability Sport programme and supported by SDS staff and a raft of skilled volunteers, including this year Colin Hardie and Kieron McAneny from Celtic FC Foundation who brought a high level of enthusiasm and coaching expertise to proceedings and ensured the participants were engaged and tested throughout.

Kieron said: “On behalf of Celtic FC Foundation Colin and I found this whole experience exceptional. The opportunity to work with such motivated and dedicated young people is inspirational. We sincerely hope this y between Celtic FC Foundation and SDS will continue to flourish as these experiences are invaluable for both volunteers and young people.”

The young people were divided into three teams for all activities which included adapted cycling, archery, water sports in the beautiful surroundings of Loch Insh and a magnificent expedition around the shores of the atmospheric Loch an Eilean. The youngsters also had opportunities to complete significant tasks working collaboratively to achieve a successful outcome in various team building activities.

At the end of the camp the participants enjoyed a final lunch with the new friends they had made over the duration of the camp and winning team was announced following the readings of the limericks the teams were tasked with making up over the course of the expedition.

The feedback from participants and parents has been universally positive and the participants gained so much from the venue and the activities on offer. The participants who use wheelchairs saw their chair skills greatly improve and many of them can now appreciate what is possible and some stated that through the expedition they achieved beyond what they originally thought they were capable of prior to the camp.

The camp organiser Mark Gaffney, Events Manager for SDS, said: “We are indebted to Short Breaks fund, Wheelpower and Celtic FC Foundation for their continued sport of the SDS Summer Camp. The young people have gained confidence and competence across a number of areas which will benefit them hugely in pursuing sport and physical activity at a recreation, development or performance level. They’ve also had to learn to work collectively to achieve a common goal. The element of competition between the three teams ensures that each individual works to their maximum potential. Every individual has learnt a new skill or had a new experience and this is in thanks in no small part to the support we receive from Wheelpower.”

Some feedback from parents and staff:

“She had a great time, was really well looked after and enjoyed the activities & the company of the other kids and adults. Big thumbs up!”

“She loved it. She was desperate to come next year.”

“This is a fantastic event for all children involved. It not only offers my child a great opportunity to try new sports and push their limits offers respite with the knowledge my child is having a fantastic time. The camp allows my child to build relationship with a wide range of people and boast his confidence. I really cannot praise the camp enough, thank you everyone for organising and volunteering, you do a fantastic job!”

“The kids love it, from the moment we collect him he starts talking about next year’s camp.”

Photos from the camp are available at our facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/scottishdisabilitysport/photos