The BWF Spanish ParaBadminton Championships took place March 9 – 12 in Alcudia, a coastal town in northern Mallorca.

Scottish players went deep into the tournament and took home four bronze medals, two of them for Mary Wilson.

In women’s singles, class SL4, Mary won a bronze medal. And in class SS6, Deirdre Nagle also took bronze.

In women’s doubles, class SL3/4, Mary, playing alongside Russia’s Natalia Iremchuk, collected her second bronze medal while in men’s doubles, class SS6, Bobby Laing and Englishman Isaak Dalgleish, landed bronze too.

Alan Oliver – playing singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles – won six matches and lost four. Colin Leslie – also playing all events – won five and lost four.

Full results can be found here

The seven Scottish athletes who travelled to Spain were Fiona Christie, Bobby Laing, Colin Leslie, Deirdre Nagle, Alan Oliver, David Purdie, Mary Wilson.

Norway won the World Wheelchair Curling Championships 2017 gold medals and world title for the third time on Saturday 11th March in the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, Republic of Korea. Russia took silver while Scotland won the bronze medals.

In the bronze medal match Scotland – skipped by Aileen Neilson, with third Gregor Ewan, second Hugh Nibloe, lead Robert McPherson and alternate Angie Malone – fell four shots behind China in the second end before fighting back to secure a 9-5 victory and the bronze medals.

Scotland skip, Aileen Neilson said after the win; “It’s a bit surreal to be honest. Having come off from losing in the 1v2 game to Russia, and then to Norway [in semi-final] we knew we had to come back out here and fight. After giving up the four that was a big ask but it just shows the real dynamics we have in our team. We stuck together and we didn’t let it go until the very last stone was thrown. We’ve lost big ends before and managed to fight back – it’s about not letting that get to you. There are ups and there are downs but it’s how you cope with them. And I think we fought back after the losses. You learn more from the games you lose than the games you win. We have gained so much experience in having come back from the qualifiers to come back and medal. It’s just fantastic. I’m really, really pleased.”

The 10 teams competing at the Wheelchair Curling Championships 2017 in Gangneung, Republic of Korea have all earned Paralympic Qualification Points to be in qualifying positions for the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

Twelve teams will compete at the Games. With points gathered across the past three World Wheelchair Curling Championships the Member Associations who have earned enough Paralympic Qualification Points are: Canada, China, Finland, Germany, Norway, Russia, Scotland (Great Britain), Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, USA and hosts Korea.

This year’s World Championships also doubled as a test event for PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games being held between 9th and 18th March 2018, as the wheelchair curling will be returning to the Gangneung Curling Centre during the games.

There will be no wheelchair world championship next year (2018) as the Championships are not held in Winter Paralympic Games years. The World Wheelchair Curling Championships 2019 will take place in Stirling, Scotland between 2nd and 8th March 2019.

Photos: © WCF / Céline Stucki

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:

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