Month: August 2018

Dundee Dragons seek volunteer coaching staff

Dundee Dragons Wheelchair Sports Club are a ground breaking sports club based in Dundee city.

We provide sporting opportunities for children and adults who are active wheelchair users or who have a physical disability and a desire to participate in sports including basketball, rugby league, tennis, badminton and curling.

We are currently recruiting for the following positions:

  • Volunteer coach to take on responsibilities for coaching wheelchair basketball on a Wednesday evening and/or a Saturday morning;
  • Volunteer coach to take on responsibilities for coaching Wheelchair Rugby League on a Wednesday evening and/or a Saturday morning.

Both roles require someone with a passion for sports to engage adults and young people in sessions at Dundee and Angus College Gardyne Campus Dundee.

This is would be a great opportunity if you are passionate about engaging sports people with a disability.

It also provides the opportunity to work with multiple young athletes who represent Scotland in national and international competition as well as adults who participate in Invictus Games in Team GB.

For more information please see the full job descriptions below:

Outstanding PBs by Fife Athletes in Glasgow

At the GAA Glasgow Miler Meet at Scotstoun Stadium on Friday 27th July, Owen Miller and Sam Fernando from Fife AC recorded outstanding personal best performances for 5000m. Owen is coached by Steve Doig and Sam by Ron Morrison. Sam recently returned from Paris where he won bronze in 10000m and gold in 3K steeplechase at the INAS European Championships. Owen recently broke through the 4 minute barrier for 1500m for the first time with a time just over 3.57.

Owen was in brilliant form in Glasgow when he recorded 15.08 for 5000m, over 30 seconds faster than his previous personal best. Over the past few years Owen has concentrated on 800m and 1500m because these distances have a Paralympic pathway for T20 athletes. Owen started out as a cross country and distance athlete but switched to middle distance because of his ambition to represent Great Britain and 800m and 1500m were the only opportunities available.

His Miler Meet performance is a clear indication of his considerable talent over 5K as well as middle distance. It may be that Owen’s time is the fastest time recorded by a GB T20 athlete?

Sam similarly had a great run in Glasgow. Like Owen he is having the season of his life and yet he is still a novice in high performance distance running. Sam recorded 15.39 at Scotstoun, the first occasion he has broken through the 16 minute barrier. Sam’s previous best for 5K was 16:05.33. Apart from the competition commitments Paris was a whole new experience for Sam and he passed with flying colours.

Disability Sport Fife is indeed fortunate to have two such talented athletes and access to an incredible athletics partner in Fife AC with outstanding coaches and supportive athletes. Owen is a past pupil of Woodmill HS and Sam a past pupil of Bell Baxter HS.

Young Fife Boccia Player Continues to Progress

Teenager Tyler McLelland from Glenrothes continues to progress in the sport of boccia. In the past year he has taken advantage of every invitation tournament that has been available to advance his skills as a competitive BC4 boccia player. Tyler is coached by his mum Emma and at the Lothian Invitation tournament last weekend he achieved his best results to date. Mum Emma also made a contribution to tournament refereeing duties.

For the first time Tyler was offered the opportunity to play in the adult section of the tournament. In his qualifying pool Tyler won all his matches and this set him up for a semi final rematch against a player who had defeated him last year 11-0. Tyler reversed the result on this occasion with a 5-2 win and progressed to the final. The final was however one game too many on this occasion. Tyler felt that he could hardly lift his arm because he was so tired. Tyler played his heart out in the final against Fiona Muirhead but had to settle for runner up position.

This was by far Tyler’s best competition result to date. Coach Emma was pleased with Tyler’s performance and indicated that Tyler gets stronger with every competition and certainly more tactically astute.

Tyler trains at the Michael Woods Sports & Leisure Centre on the competition court provided by the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust. Tyler plays with competition balls purchased in Spain and financed by the Order of St John in Fife. Disability Sport Fife is currently in discussions with Scottish Disability Sport to try and access a series of masterclass sessions with Scotland’s leading BC4 boccia players.

Richard Brickley MBE – President Disability Sport Fife

Triple Shooting Success for Grampian’s Ritchie

Once again, Grampian shooter Allan Ritchie has triumphed in the latest Para Trap event as part of the British Shooting Shotgun Series 2018. However, he added to his national success by being picked to represent Team GB internationally.

The current Scottish, British, European and World Record Holder (and current ranked World #1 Para Trap Shooter) will now travel to Chateauroux in France this September to compete in the World Shooting Para Sport World Cup, and will soon after fly off to Lonato in Italy for the World Shooting Para Sport World Championships at the start of October.

Everyone at Scottish Disability Sport and Grampian Disability Sport wishes Allan all the best in his endeavour to secure the top spots in both events! Good luck, Allan!

If any organisations or companies would like to support Allan in his endeavours in Para Trap Shooting, please get in touch.

If you, or anyone you know, lives in Grampian with a physical, sensory or learning disability and is keen to get involved in Para Sport, please contact Alison Shaw on alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com or on 07828 744 848.

SFA Coaching Para Footballers Course

The Scottish Football Association, Scottish Disability Sport, Forth Valley Disability Sport and the Central partners are scheduling an upcoming Coaching Para-Footballers course. Please see details below:

Coaching Para-Footballers

19th Aug 2018, 10am-4pm

Woodlands Games Hall, Falkirk

£54 per person (Discount available to Quality Mark clubs)

This six-hour course is open to all interested parties aged 16 and over, experienced or otherwise, who work with para-footballers. In addition to delivering new content, the course will assist coaches to develop their understanding of working with para-footballers and the ability to develop individual players technique.

On completion of the course, candidates will have better understanding of:

  • Understand Para-Footballers LTPD
  • Para-football skill level
  • Adapting of practices
  • Rule of varying para-football events
  • Coaching considerations
  • Delivering a para-football session
  • Para-football terminology

To book onto the course and find out more information please visit https://www.scottishfa.co.uk/football-development/coaching/find-a-course/, or alternatively please contact Martyn Buckie at the SFA on 07841 569 801 / martyn.buckie@scottishfa.co.uk).

Additionally, for more info on disability sport within Central Scotland, please contact: Cheryl Lappin – cheryl.lappin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / Phone: 07577 830360.

World Boccia Championships to be Live Streamed

The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships will be streamed live as they take place at Exhibition Centre Liverpool from 12-18 August this year.

Audiences will be able to see their favourite Paralympic boccia stars in action through connected devices, TV, tablet and mobile on the BBC.

The main court will be live from Sunday 12 August from 09:00-19:00 BST to Saturday 18 August from 10:30-18:00 BST on the BBC Sport website, Sport app & connected TV.

Boccia UK Chair John Dowson says the decision is a huge boost to the sport: “It is fantastic news that the World Championships will be live streamed by the BBC. It is a huge opportunity for us to reach more people and showcase the sport of boccia. Hopefully it will inspire many watching on their TV or devices to play.”

Hopes are certainly riding high for the ten members of the British team ahead of the Championships. Leading the way are Paralympic gold medallist David Smith MBE and defending champion Stephen McGuire who has enjoyed a superb season.

BBC Sport has committed to providing technical and editorial support to sports to enable them to broadcast their events more widely and has offered to live stream all UK Sport-supported major events on its website and red button channels, where no competing commercial broadcaster is involved.

The new commitment comes after the BBC announced ambitious plans to reinvent free-to-air sports broadcasting, with its biggest increase of live sport coverage in a generation. Over a thousand extra hours of live sport could be available for audiences to watch online every year through BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer. The BBC is working closely with sports bodies across the UK with the aim of broadcasting coverage from more than 30 additional sports or sporting events every year.
The broadcasts will help to keep Olympic and Paralympic sports and their stars in the public eye between Games times, with more events such as World, European and National Championships likely to be shown.

The BISFed 2018 World Boccia Championships has been made possible thanks to UK Sport’s National Lottery funding through its Major Events Programme.

Tickets are on sale now and are available to buy online at: www.echoarena.com/worldboccia.

Turnbull Tastes Success in Paris

North Berwick tennis star Luke Turnbull played in his first International Tournament from 14th – 22nd July, representing Great Britain at the INAS World and European Tennis Championships in Paris, France.  The 15 year old, who has been playing tennis for around 8 years, claimed a Bronze medal in the European doubles and Silver (European) and Bronze (World) in the team events as the INAS World and Europeans Championships run concurrently across the course of the week-long event.

Turnbull, a pupil at North Berwick High School, currently represents North Berwick Men’s 1st Team and St Serf’s U16 and U18 junior teams and is relatively new to the learning disability tennis programme after becoming involved over the last 18 months.  The tournament has provided the East Lothian youngster with a great experience at this level and highlighted the work required to push the top players for the podium places in future events, however at 14 years of age he has time on his side.

The International Federation for Athletes with Intellectual Impairments (INAS) supports more than 300,000 of the world’s most talented athletes to compete in a variety of winter and summer sports and organises International competitions such as the World and European Championships.  The Tennis Foundation and UK Sports Association (UKSA) carried out selection for the Great Britain team.