SDS are delighted that 14 Scots have been named in the Paralympics GB squad for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

With 24 athletes selected to represent Paralympics GB, Scots make up 58% of the squad. The games begin on Friday 4th March running until Sunday 13th March and are expected to feature an estimated 600 athletes from more than 50 countries.

The following Scots have been selected:

Alpine Skiing

Shona Brownlee – Livingston

(Guide) Katie Guest – Perth

(Guide) Brett Wild – Glasgow

Neil Simpson – Banchory

(Guide) Andrew Simpson – Banchory

Nordic Skiing

Callum Deboys – Kirkmichael

Hope Gordon – Golspie

Scott Meenagh – Cumbernauld

Snowboard

Andy Macleod – Stirling

Curling

Meggan Dawson-Farrell – Tullibody

Gary Smith (alternate) – Edinburgh

Gregor Ewan – Elgin

Hugh Nibloe – Stranraer

David Melrose – Duns

Many congratulations to all athletes who have been selected and we wish everyone the best of luck in Beijing.

 

As spring approaches are you looking to get out, meet new friends and get active?

Here are some reasons why you may want to get involved in physical activity and sport:

If you are aged between 16 and 25, have a disability and live in Scotland you could be eligible to up to £4000 in funding to try something new. Independent Living Fund Scotland is currently offering a Transition Fund to support you to try new activities and gain new experiences.

For more information and how to apply, follow the link below:

  Independent Living Fund Scotland

If you would like to get involved in physical activity and sport, our Regional Managers can find an appropriate activity for you in a welcoming and inclusive environment. You can contact your nearest Regional Manager here: Regional Contacts

  If you require further support to access information please give us a call on 0131 317 1130

Scottish Curling are pleased to announce that we are running two Disability Try Curling Festivals in March 2022, in Stranraer and Inverness..

These special events will allow people of all ability levels to try curling in a safe and enjoyable environment.

For full information see the flyer: Disability Try Curling Festivals

An exciting summer camp opportunity has arisen for young people between the age of 4 and 12 years with Cerebral Palsy or a related condition. This camp is taking place on 6-12 August 2022.

If you and your child would like to experience rock climbing, abseiling, high rope and canoeing in the great outdoors then this is the right camp for you.

It is being organised in conjunction with Calvert Trust. CPISRA have received funding to support 4 families to attend the camp. More information is available by emailing lauren.mcallister@cpisra.org.

British Triathlon has launched a search for athletes to join its Talent Identification pathway, aiming to find talented individuals with the potential to become medallists at future Paralympic Games. The campaign is looking for athletes with the following impairments:

• Amputee
• Spinal cord injury
• Visual impairment
• Neurological impairment (for example, cerebral palsy)

Paratriathlon is a relatively new additional to the Paralympic programme, included for the first time in 2016 and then again at the Tokyo 2020 Games. Paratriathlon is three sports in one and athletes compete over the ‘spring distance’ version, consisting of 750m open water swim, 20km bike, 5km run / push.

The current campaign is now live, with sign up open and any interested individuals can register their interest by clicking here. The process will invite interested athletes to attend a virtual event on 27th February and provide the opportunity to hear all about the sport, the classification system and the performance pathway.

When starting the journey in the sport, athletes do not necessarily need to have a background in triathlon and previous performance athletes have come from a range of sporting backgrounds, including swimming, athletics, cycling, football, rugby and rowing.

More information around Paratriathlon can be found by accessing the links below:

https://www.britishtriathlon.org/paratriathlontalentid

https://www.britishtriathlon.org/get-involved/paratriathlon

Photo credit @imagecomms

Young Scottish archer Cameron Radigan from Ayrshire has been selected by Archery GB to represent Great Britain at the upcoming World Archery Championships to be held in Dubai on 19-27 February. Cameron will be joined there by his fellow Scot, the experienced Nathan Macqueen with strong Scottish representation in the squad of 11 travelling.  

Nathan, from Polbeth, has represented GB at two Paralympics Games at Rio and Tokyo and has twice represented GB at World Championships so is a well-known face in the sport. A profile of Nathan can be found here. Cameron, however, will be making his debut in Dubai and his selection is the culmination of a huge amount of dedication and commitment to training – against a backdrop of difficult situations – not least the recent Covid pandemic which made accessing regular quality training opportunities hugely challenging.  

Cameron is a remarkable young man from Galston in East Ayrshire who has been involved in archery ever since he participated in some sessions during many happy family holidays in Haven parks. When he was two Cameron was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his left calf muscle and was given a 10% survival chance by doctors at the time. He fought hard through the intense periods of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and the risk of additional tumours elsewhere in his body which remains under regular review to this day. Cameron had a further life-changing decision to make in 2018 when he decided to amputate his lower left leg in order to give himself the mobility he sought to improve his life and his opportunity in the sport he loves. When we tell you that only eleven days after his amputation Cameron was competing at Lilleshall it goes some way to illustrating the character of this extraordinary high-performance athlete.  Cameron passionately believes that a disability should not prevent him competing at the highest level in archery and he is living proof of that very assertion.  

Like many performance athletes 2021 was a very difficult year for Cameron, with huge amounts of uncertainty around training and competition opportunities. He experienced first the elation of being selected for the Scottish Commonwealth Championships Training Squad in India before the disappointment arrived of the cancellation of the event due to rising Covid cases in the country. Cameron remains pragmatic and has redoubled his effort into using the time to upgrade his equipment and access more training time and further support from key individuals around Britain.  

Cameron is currently making the difficult transition from being at the top of the tree in the junior rankings to navigating through the open ranks of the sport. He is doing this with aplomb as his improving ranking will testify.  

In October 2021 Cameron was invited to be part of the Performance Archery WCP Potential Programme where he is supported by the GB Para Team and Staff. This recognition by Archery GB is another step forward for Cameron who has worked tirelessly to reach this landmark achievement. 

Cameron keeps people updated on his informative and entertaining blog which can be accessed here.  

Article reproduced from Scottish Canoe Association

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Roger Holmes headed north to Orkney to deliver an inclusive paddlesport project, he tells us about it here…

Back in 2019, following the success of the Inclusive Paddlesport Project we had run that summer with Fife CAG, Aberdeen Kayak Club, and Forth Canoe Club in partnership with Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) and the MS Society we seemed to be building some real momentum. People had seen the film and the Facebook posts and we began to get further enquiries through the MS Society in Inverness and even Orkney asking if we could support a similar initiative in their area. Having already worked with Inverness Canoe Club and following some phone calls and a meeting in Inverness it resulted in members of the MS Society joining the pool sessions in Inverness in early January 2020.

Orkney offered a different challenge, for a start it’s not just a quick ‘nip up the road’ and I only really knew one member of Kirkwall Kayak Club. That was Nick Blowfield whom I had emailed and spoken to about an article he had written for SCOTTISH PADDLER, on how he and the club had supported young adults to take part in paddlesport through Scottish Autism.

So I contacted Nick who was really enthusiastic from the start and after some initial discussions with the club, SDS, MS Society and Orkney Islands Council we began planning some inclusive paddlesport sessions for the summer of 2020.

Not to be deterred by lockdown and hoping things would settle down, we all stayed in contact; Nick from Kirkwall Kayak Club, Heather Lowden and Kirsty Ewen from SDS, George Hannah and Allan Jamieson from the MS Society and Joanne Cairns from Orkney Islands Council and myself.

The plan began to evolve in the hope we could make it happen in the summer of 2021. The idea was that we would run pool sessions at the start of the week for confidence and when people had had time to recover, run some sea sessions and include some Paddle Ability training somewhere in between.

The next thing was how we were going to pay for it? This was when Nick again arrived with the solution. In most clubs’ constitutions it states that should that club fold, any remaining funds should be donated to a like-minded club or organisation and this is what the former committee of Orkney Sea Kayaking Association chose to do when they heard of this project.

This injection of cash enabled me to travel, stay in Orkney for a week to support the club and take along a selection of adaptive equipment. I was also able to hire the swimming pool at The Pickaquoy Centre and a room at the St Magnus Centre for Paddle Ability training at no cost to the participants. It is hoped that this will also help fund some adaptive equipment for the club to be able to use in the future which is a great legacy.

Finally, Jo and I along with Jasper our dog set off in a fully loaded car and two boats up the A9 for an overnight stay at the inlaws near Inverness, before catching the lunchtime ferry from Gills Bay to St Margarets Hope in Orkney. It was amazing when we finally arrived in Orkney, after so much planning, waiting and uncertainty as to whether this would ever be able to happen!

We started with pool sessions on the Saturday and Sunday. As with all these things, everything relies on the drive and enthusiasm of the volunteers to make it a success – and that is just what they did! From moving boats into the pool, to helping participants get on the water and then supporting those first paddle strokes. It was an afternoon with plenty of smiles and laughs with some participants catching on so quickly that coaches were literally running up and down the length of the pool to keep up. There was a great team vibe from all the coaches and participants including Joanne and Kirsty who were on the side supporting and taking pictures.

On the Tuesday evening we got a chance for all the coaches to get together at the St Magnus Centre to take part in some Paddle Ability training with lots of great discussions and sharing of experiences and ideas.

On Wednesday afternoon it was the first chance to get people out on the sea at Scapa beach. A wide selection of craft (on two trailers) had been delivered the night before by Peter, and the volunteers, many of whom had spent the morning at work, all rushed to the beach to get set up for folks arriving at 1pm.

Scapa beach was an ideal location with its wide, sandy beach that shelves gently so the sea is shallow for quite a way. This allowed the coaches to walk alongside participants in the shallows while they launched and gained confidence. For these sessions family members of all ages were able to join in. From a couple, Janet and her husband Richard, whom I paddled with in a rafted canoe they had me in stitches the whole time, to a family managing to take part in an outdoor activity together.

As we headed back to the mainland on the ferry on Saturday morning it had been an amazing week. Everyone had been so friendly and helpful especially all the club coaches and volunteers: Jenni Kakkonen, Stuart Little, Peter Woodward, Bob Moar, Dennis Bichan and Kristian Cooper. An extra special thank you goes to Nick Blowfield, Beki Russell and Coilla Drake who made every session, Coilla even camped all week so she could be there as she lives on another island. A big thank you to everyone involved.

What did the participants think?

“My husband has struggled with MS for many years. His symptoms include pain, fatigue and difficulty with balance. He used to enjoy the outdoors so much and loved hill walking.

“When George got in touch and suggested a day out for our family with specialist kayakers we were delighted and signed up straight away! The day out was wonderful. It is a rare occasion that we all do outdoor activities together now. My husband really enjoyed it and our children too. They loved seeing their dad joining in and having fun with them.”

“The kayaking gave both me and my nineyear-old niece a chance to try the activity in a fully accessible session together. It was a really enjoyable experience and in fact so super that my niece is now intending to take up the sport after having such a good speedy lesson from the session leaders.”

“It was fantastic seeing folks from the MS community in Orkney getting a chance to do something they probably wouldn’t get to do otherwise. To see folks out there enjoying themselves having fun and in some cases with family, It was just priceless”.

George Hannah – MS Society

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Article reproduced with permission from Scottish Canoe Association

Orkney Paddler