On Thursday 6th April from 12 – 2pm we will be taking part in a tubing session at Bearsden Ski Club, with one of the clubs instructors where we will be going down the slope on an inflatable tyre!
After the session we will have some lunch and social time in the clubs café.
Places for this event are limited so booking is essential.
If you would like to join us on the day please get in touch by calling Clare Sweeney on 0141 332 4632 or emailing Clare.Sweeney@visibility.org.uk.
The 40th Anniversary Disability Sport Fife Football 5s and Unihoc 6s Championships, supported by the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust and Fife Council, were held at the Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre on Thursday 9th March. The Fife Referees Association supported the football and fresh from their mid week victory against St Mirren, Raith Rovers Football Club was represented by manager John Hughes plus youth coach Craig Easton and members of the youth squad. Aileen Penny and Helima Mutch umpired the unihoc matches.
Twenty-one teams (over 160 players) from East Fife CSS, West Fife CSS, Central Fife CSS, Lochgelly HS Sports Club, Lochgelly HS, Balwearie HS, Fife College Dunfermline, Scottish Autism and Glenrothes Strollers competed in the best of spirit and fair play.
Pupils from Balwearie HS and Lochgelly HS contested the football and unihoc junior competitions with Balwearie HS winning both junior titles for the first time. Only one point separated the first teams of each school at the end of football qualification with the final ending up a 4-2 victory for the Kirkcaldy School. Lochgelly HS second team finished in third place. In the unihoc competition the girls from Balwearie and Lochgelly High Schools contested three matches with two matches drawn and one victory for Balwearie HS. That single win was enough to win the overall competition by 4 – 2.
The senior women’s unihoc championship was closely contested over three matches. Defending champions East Fife 
Community Support services won the first two qualifying games by 1 – 0 and 2 – 0 to accumulate an unbeatable total of 4 points. Central Fife CSS came back strongly in the final game to win by a single goal and take the overall points total to 4 – 2 in favour of East Fife CSS. East Fife CSS remain the undisputed champions of senior unihoc.
Queen Anne Lads won the Division 3 football championship with a convincing win against Scottish Autism. Scottish Autism players had an excellent championship winning through to the final undefeated throughout qualification. The final on this occasion was a step too far. West Fife CSS 2 and East Fife CSS reached the Division 2 final with a win and a draw in qualifying. The West Fife players played magnificently in the final to run out worthy winners by 4 – 1.
The Division 1 competition for the Fife Regional Council Cup was as always a series of closely contested matches. Lochgelly HS Sports Club qualified for the final without losing a match or even conceding a goal. DSF Strollers lost only one match but in the final they lost out by the odd goal in five. A wonderful match played in the best of spirit. Fife College Dunfermline and West Fife CSS lost out during qualifying.
Presentations were made by Raith Rovers staff and young players. With three events of the 2017 Fife Annual Sports Festival completed, attention now turns to badminton, basketball and netball competitions in week two in Kirkcaldy and Glenrothes.
Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife
The UCI para – cycling track World Championships took place in Los Angeles, USA from the 2 – 5 March 2017 with no fewer than six Scottish athletes representing Great Britain at the event. All of whom competed in the Tandem events for riders with a visual impairment.
Rio 2016 silver medal winning triathletes, Alison Patrick and Hazel McLeod (pilot), were making their international track cycling debut following a successful talent transfer. Ironically, the pair didn’t combine on this occasion with Patrick being piloted by Helen Scott, whilst McLeod piloted Lora Fachie – the wife of Scotland’s highly successful sprinter, Neil.
Stalwarts Neil Fachie, once again piloted by Craig McLean, were also in action, whilst Ailien McGlynn was back in the saddle, piloted by SDS Athlete Academy Athlete Louise Haston, as they attempt to resurrect their Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games form in order to qualify for Gold Coast 2018.
All the Scottish riders were in fine form as each delivered medals on the World stage and we’ll wait to hear whether or not they met the qualifying standard for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia 2018. A full list of medal success can be seen below:
| Aileen | McGlynn | Tandem B – 1000m Time Trial | Silver |
| Louise | Haston (Pilot) | Tandem B – 1000m Time Trial | Silver |
| Alison | Patrick | Tandem B – 1000m Time Trial | Bronze |
| Neil | Fachie | Tandem B – 1000m Time Trial | Silver |
| Craig | McLean (Pilot) | Tandem B – 1000m Time Trial | Silver |
| Hazel | McLeod (Pilot) | Tandem B – 3km Pursuit | Silver |
| Craig | McLean (Pilot) | Tandem B – Sprint | Silver |
| Neil | Fachie | Tandem B – Sprint | Silver |
| Alison | Patrick | Tandem B – Sprint | Silver |
| Aileen | McGlynn | Tandem B – Sprint | Bronze |
| Louise | Haston (Pilot) | Tandem B – Sprint | Bronze |
More information can be found on the British Cycling website.
Scotland have reached the final play-offs at the World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Gangneung, South Korea, where they will face Russia in Friday’s play-offs with the winner going straight through to the gold-medal match.
The Scottish team consist of Aileen Neilson, Rob McPherson, Gregor Ewan and Hugh Nibloe – led by Sheila Swan – beat Germany 6-3 in their last round-robin match on Thursday. The result secured second place in the overall standings behind Russia, to whom they lost 8-7 earlier in the competition.
The losers will have a second chance to reach the final against the winners of the play-off between third and fourth.
The Scots, who accrue qualification points for Great Britain during the Paralympic cycle, have already qualified a team to represent Great Britain at the Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, which start in exactly a year’s time.
They finished the round-robin phase with six wins from their nine games, losing to Canada and the USA, as well as Russia.
For more information please visit http://www.worldcurling.org/wwhcc2017
The fantastic achievements in 2016 of Rio Paralympics double-gold winning sprinter Libby Clegg have been recognised at the Live Borders Celebration of Sport awards held in Kelso on Friday night.
The T11 athlete – whose family live in Newcastleton – won the ‘Disability Award’, voted for by the Scottish Borders Disability Sport Group.
The award for ‘Inspirational Moment of the Year’ was awarded to Borders Paralympians and Olympians with Libby, her brother Stephen and Gordon’s Samantha Kinghorn all receiving a smaller version of the main award to recognise this accolade.
The main award was presented on the evening to Cardrona’s Patrick Wilson, who collected on behalf of all the ‘Rio Borderers’.
The best was yet to come for Libby, as the final award of the evening is the prestigious ‘Sports Personality of the Year’ – voted for by the Borders public. Libby prevailed over the Team GB mountain biker, Grant Ferguson from Peebles and fellow Team GB Olympian Mark Robertson, a silver medallist in the Rugby 7s event from Melrose. The awards have a strong track record of recognising parasport and athletes – Sammi Kinghorn – who also had a fine year in 2016 adding a record time in the Jedburgh 10km Wheelchair Race to her Rio experience – picked up three awards in 2015 including the Personality of the Year title – and further recognition on the evening was given to Kelso Orchard Tennis Club who won the Club of the Year award and run an inclusive and discrete programme of events for players with a disability.
Photos from Event: Phil Wilkinson www.philspix.co.uk
Double Paralympian Kate Murray from Bonchester Bridge in the Scottish Borders has been inducted into the Scottish Archery Hall of Fame. Kate first tried Archery after a friend bought her a training session as a Christmas present. She enjoys the inclusive nature of the competition, often competing alongside non-disabled archers and she has now been competing for over nine years. She trains with Eastcote House and Border Bowmen and also sits on the committee of the Scottish Borders Disability Sport Group. Kate’s greatest achievement to date was winning bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Cheongju, Korea.
At London 2012, Kate finished in the top 10 of the women’s Individual Recurve (W1/W2) and placed 7th in the Team event.
Kate celebrated her 64th birthday on the opening day of competition at London 2012 and was the oldest member of ParalympicsGB.
Kate is joined on the Hall of Fame – launched in 2014 – by fellow Paralympians Jim Buchanan, John Murray and Sandy Gregory.
Wednesday 1st – Friday 3rd March 2017 saw the Peak, Stirling host the successful Scottish Wheelchair Curling Championship.
Wednesday 1st March, also known as International Wheelchair Day, inspired over 50 wheelchair curlers to attend the three-day competition, which was praised as being played with a high level of friendship and an inspiring event.
The Chief Executive of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, Bruce Crawford, presented medals at the event.
Medal winning teams
Gold: Jim Sellar, Jim Gault, Debbie McKenna, Tom Killin with the Rhona Martin trophy and their gold medals.
Silver: Gill Keith, David Pollock, Alan Hopkins, Martin Elliot.
Bronze: Team Donaldson.
Debbie McKenna also won the Rhona Martin trophy playing her part as a member of Team Gault in winning the Scottish Wheelchair Curling Championship.
In her first UCI Para – cycling Track World Championships, the remarkable Alison Patrick from Dunfermline won bronze in the tandem 1000m Time Trial (1:11.115) and then just lost out to Belgium for a second bronze in the tandem 3K pursuit. Alison shared the success on this occasion with Helen Scott. Hazel Smith (now McLeod) was her Para- triathlete pilot when she won silver at the Paralympic Games in Rio.
Sophie Thornhill and Corrine Hall from GB won double gold. Scot Aileen McGlynn won silver in 1K time trial with pilot Louise Haston (1:11.089) and finished 6th in 3K Pursuit. Lorna Turnham and Hazel McLeod from GB won silver in 3K pursuit to make it an outstanding all round tandem performance by Team GB Elite Women.
Alison is a specialist in the disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. Entry into track cycling is an effort to see how realistic it is to gain selection for Team Scotland for the Commonwealth Games in Australia in 2018 where she would have Hazel McLeod (nee Smith) on board as her pilot. The results from Los Angeles clearly indicate she is off to a brilliant start. Helen has had considerable success in track cycling and was the ideal partner for Fife’s exceptional visually impaired all rounder. Alison now returns to her preparations for the European Para – triathlon championships later this year.
Well done to the Dunfermline and West Fife Sports Council Sports Personality of the Year.
Photo of Alison with Grace Francis who was her pilot at the Test Event in Rio prior to the Games.
Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife
The West of Scotland Para-sport Festival takes place on Friday 10th March 2017 at Ravenscraig Regional Sports Facility, Motherwell. The festival is funded by the Celtic Foundations ‘Inspiring Sport’ initiative who have been great supporters of this festival for the past 4 years.
The festival is open to P6/P7 and secondary pupils who have a physical disability and/or visual impairment. This will be the 8th Para-sport festival held in the West of Scotland where over the years just under 400 distinct participants have had the opportunity to try different sports and participate with other pupils of a similar age and ability. The sports are all delivered by qualified coaches who have links to local sports club, and is supported by students from Ayrshire College.
Due to the number of pupils in the West of Scotland the festival is split between the 13 local authorities, with Friday 10th March being for South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire, North Ayrshire and Dumfries & Galloway.
Later on in the year, Friday 10th November, there will be another Para-sport festival for Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, Renfrewshire, Argyll & Bute and Inverclyde.
For further information please contact
Lynn Allison 07974 448580 lynn.allison@scottishdisabilitysport.com
or
Lori Ure 07806 815591 lori.ure@scottishdisabilitysport.com
Application form can be downloaded here
Alternatively you can complete the online form here
On Sunday 5th March Grampian Disability Sport held their Get Out Get Active (GOGA) project launch at Garioch Sports Centre, Inverurie. The launch was a great success with over 35 participants coming along with their families to hear about the project and get involved in the adapted cycling taster session.
The overall project aim is to have better opportunities for people with disabilities of all ages, along with their families and friends, to be included within existing mainstream walking, cycling, swimming and triathlon programmes across the rural and urban Grampian region.
The main focus of the project in Grampian is the set up of three adapted cycling hubs one in Aberdeenshire, one in Aberdeen City and one in Moray. As part of the launch Fabb Scotland travelled up from Edinburgh with their adapted bikes so people could see and try the variety of adapted cycling equipment on offer. The bikes never stopped the whole day with participants moving from one bike to another with many managing to find a bike they could use independently.
The next stage of the cycling project is to train staff in the adapted cycling equipment which will take place on 21st April in Inverurie. GDS have also been successful to secure funding from Inverurie Youth Sports Foundation to purchase a container to store the adapted bikes at Garioch Sports Centre. All there is left to do now is to get the adapted cycling equipment ordered with the Spirit of 2012 GOGA money. This will allow for the first EVER adapted cycling hub to up and running in Grampian at Garioch Sports Centre, Inverurie. Everyone who attended the launch was very excited about having this hub local to them with not too long to wait until it is in full swing.
There is work also taking place with Paths for All to open up their existing health walks to anyone of any ability across the Grampian area. Scottish Swimming our swimming partner are offering training to swimming teachers to make adaptations for children with disabilities within a learn to swim environment.
The launch event would not have been the success it was without the support of Aberdeenshire Sport Council who provided funding for the launch to allow us to have a relaxed social gathering to chat with families about their needs in the area and also bring the specialised equipment up for the day for families to try.
For further information about the GOGA Project please contact Gemma Lewis on 01467 534730 or email: gemma.lewis@aberdeenshire.gov.uk.
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