Early this morning 18 athletes and their coaches left Edinburgh Airport for Sant Cugat, Spain to compete as Team Scotland in the CPISRA World Games.  The athletes consist of three boccia players, four swimmers and 11 athletes.

The first couple of days the team will be training (and heat acclimatisation) with some also going through classification, with the competition starting on Thursday.

There is a mix of experience in the team with 10 members previously representing Scotland at the last World Games in Nottingham in 2015.  This was a very successful team in 2015 where lots of medals were achieved and numerous personal achievements accomplished.  There is great excitement surrounding the team and the fact that some have been previously is helping this vibe and is also keeping the new athletes’ nerves at bay.

Many of the athletes have family and friends travelling over to support which will be a great boost and comfort for them!

Good luck Team!

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.

For the fourth consecutive year, the Bowls Scotland National Championships included disciplines that para bowlers compete in, and once again, we witnessed some highly competitive matches across the five physically disabled and visually impaired competitions.

Bowls is a hugely inclusive sport and Bowls Scotland have embraced the inclusion of para disciplines within their showpiece event that draws large crowds to Northfield every year.  The para bowls competitions always attract a lot of spectators and this year was no different.

This year’s competitions feature Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games bowlers Robert Barr, his director Sarah Jane Ewing, Garry Brown and Mike Nicoll, and several newcomers to the Championships, with all receiving the applause and support of the crowds on Green B on Friday.

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Notably, John Fox of Spateston BC competed in the gents’ visually impaired B2/B3 competition but was also in the gents’ pairs in the main draw, where he and Alistair Pratt reached the third round.

The finals day on Saturday was delayed due to adverse weather but the fixtures did get underway around 1230, with the results as follows:

B7/8 Men
Garry Brown 21 v 18 Daniel Porter

B6 Men
Billy Allan 21 v 14 Mike Nicoll

B7/8 Ladies
Barbara McMillan (Best of 3 matches)

B2/B3 Men
Ian Graham 21 v 13 Sandy Mackintosh

B2/B3 Ladies
Melanie Inness 21 v 11 Mary Stevenson

With two weeks to go until the CPISRA World Games, Scottish Disability Sport is delighted to confirm the full team to represent Scotland.  The Games will take place in Sant Cugat, Spain from the 6 – 12 August 2018.

As a member of the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CPISRA) Scottish Disability Sport has a longstanding tradition of competing in the event having been most recently represented in Nottingham in 2015.

The event is seen as an ideal opportunity for aspiring world class athletes, with Cerebral Palsy, to compete in a high performance multi-sport event.  This type of experience and exposure is essential on the athlete journey, prior to selection for more high profile competitions, such as the Paralympic or Commonwealth Games.

Scotland will be represented by 18 athletes in the sports of athletics, boccia and swimming.

Gary Fraser, Team Manager, said: “We have been working closely with our partner SGB’s to select a team of athletes that are on an upward trajectory within their sport and can use this event as a spring board for future success.  Preparations are going well and we have a great team of support staff and coaches”

 

Meet the Team and click here for team profiles

 

Midway through the Inas European Summer Games, the Great Britain Team has secured its place firmly on the medal table. Strong performances across all four sports have to date produced 4 Golds and 2 Bronze medals with very real prospects of more to come.

Whilst the story continues to unfold in Paris, today, day 4 of competition, we review some of the successes so far.

Athletics

The five strong British competitors faced an equally strong international field but got their campaign underway straight away.

Making his international debut, Sam Fernando held his nerve in a tough endurance race taking a well-deserved bronze medal (33’59” 76) in the 10,000m with his team mate, Chris McMillan securing 5th place (35’45″64) in his first international for GB.

Declan Manning whilst missing out on a podium finish, produced another PB and secured 4th place in the shot.

Monday also saw Charlotte Cox make her Inas debut registering solid performances in the long jump, shot and 100m, Cox securing her the Gold medal in the Triathlon with 918 points.

Keen to earn that coveted podium place, Declan Manning pushed hard and took the bronze medal (34m 63) in the discus securing his first medal of the Championships.  Sam Fernando, not content with just one medal, knocked an incredible 6 seconds off his PB claiming the Gold medal in the men’s Steeplechase in a performance of 10’04″64.  Nathan Fleetwood progressed to the final of the 200m, and will continue his bid for glory later in the week.

Cycling

Storming to victory, on Monday, Kiera Byland swiftly placed Great Britain on the medal table taking Gold in the cycling time trial (10:30,20).  Motivated by success she was keen to repeat performances on day 2 in the ladies road race.

Byland was heavily marked in the race, especially by the Russian riders. With just a lap and half to go she executed her breakaway plan perfectly and split the other riders getting a 10 second gap by the end of that lap.  A superbly accomplished ride and combining her confidence in the last lap Byland claimed her second Gold medal of the Championships in a time of 53:32.

Clear from the outset was that the men’s race had the strongest field for many years.  Ruairidh Brown, focussed on his plan and stuck to it.  Secured in a small bunch of eight riders, Ruairidh held his own with the other medal contenders.  In the last 9 kilometres, the race winning attack was made with riders from Belgium and Ecuador escaping the small bunch.

Keeping his nerve, Brown continued with the plan but the super-fast sprint of the leaders proved too much, with him finishing in seventh place, 1m 40secs behind the winner, but improving his performance and placing on the last World Championships.

Swimming

Rachel Tweedie whilst missing out on the podium so far, has progressed to finals in all her races and secured a PB in the 50m freestyle.

Missing out on a podium place, Tweedie placed 4th in the 200IM in 3:09.96.

Tennis

The Great Britain Tennis Team have certainly lived up to their reputation storming through the competition and scuring positions in the later stages.

The world no.1 pairing of Fabrice Higgins and Dominic Iannotti took a comfortable win against the Czech Republic’s Josef Hus and Jakub Jerhot in the men’s doubles, winning 6-0.

Dominic Iannotti and partner Anna McBride stormed through to the semi-finals and will face top seeded Kelly Wren and Archie Graham from Australia for a place in the final. McBride also secured her place in the ladies singles semi-final.

Meanwhile, Turnbull and Mellow missed out on a place in the men’s doubles main draw but will play their next match in the doubles consolation event.

The Inas European Summer Games includes the Inas World Championships in Tennis and Cycling. Competition continues today (Thursday, day 4) Follow the results.

The GB Tennis entry to the Inas Championships is enabled through a collaboration between the GB Inas member, UK Sports Association and the National Governing Body, the Tennis Foundation

More information on the Inas Summer Games in Paris can be found on the event website.

If you haven’t been following the BocciaBucket progress before now, this is all the encouragement you need!

The BocciaBucket Challenge was brought about to raise awareness of the sport of boccia in the lead-up to the BISFed World Championships being held in Liverpool this August. The campaign is a variation on boccia, designed to provide an insight into certain aspects of the game in a fun and inclusive way. Anyone can play boccia, and we want everyone to know it.

Our communication team headed out to Scotstoun this week to watch several members of the Glasgow Warriors Rugby Club having a go. Boccia professional and World No 1 Stephen McGuire was on hand at the scene to give the lads a quick tutorial and some expert advice before they took on the challenge themselves. After an initial period of warming up, they started to get the hang of it and gave Stephen a real game!

You can watch the challenge here:

We would like to thank the Glasgow Warriors for fitting this in to their very busy training schedule to help raise awareness of boccia in Scotland and the forthcoming BISFed World Championships. A special thanks to Ryan Wilson, Adam Ashe, Alex Dunbar and Huw Jones for doing the challenge.

We look forward to seeing if Edinburgh Rugby answer the nomination and are excited to see what they come up with!

If you haven’t uploaded your own video yet or nominated anyone, get involved!

You can follow the campaign through our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

#BocciaBucket #GetInvolved

Want to know more about boccia? Watch this short video: https://www.bisfed2018worldboccia.com/news/2018/6/24/brand-new-boccia-animation

or contact Scottish Disability Sport by telephone at 0131 317 1130 or email at admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Great Britain’s Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid thrilled a near-capacity crowd on Court Three on Saturday to become the first three-time champions of the Wimbledon men’s doubles wheelchair tennis title after a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Belgium’s Joachim Gerard and Stefan Olsson of Sweden.

Second seeds Hewett and Reid could do little wrong in the first set, stringing together six games in a row to take the opener in just 25 minutes as Hewett fired a forehand winner on set point.

The defending champions earnt the first break of the second set for a 3-1 lead as Olsson sent a forehand long over the Brits’ baseline. However, their record of successive service holds came to an end in the very next game and Gerard and Olsson went on to level the set at 3-3.

The seventh game had everything for the appreciative crowd, with Olsson tipping out his tennis chair mid-rally before regaining his equilibrium and he and Gerard won the point and then the game to lead for the first time.

However, Hewett and Reid regrouped to move to within a game of another SW19 title and Olsson missed a volley at the net to bring up Championship point. With Gerard serving to stay in the match, Reid sent a looping forehand return back at him, the shot catching the line to secure the trophy for the Brits.

Speaking after the match, a delighted Reid emphasised how important it had been for the British duo to impose themselves from the start, saying “They’ve got a dangerous game.  They’re both big servers.  They like to get forward, put us under pressure, and rush us.  It was important to come out firing, try to stay on top of the points early.  I felt we did that really well in the first set.”

The win gives Hewett and Reid a hat-trick of Wimbledon doubles titles and sees the pair remain unbeaten as a partnership at Wimbledon.  It’s also their fourth Grand Slam title together after they also won the 2017 US Open crown.

Asked how this win measures up against their other titles, Hewett said: “I think they’re all special.  Every year to come back and win it, it’s tougher each year. People kind of expect you just to win it. We know that’s not the case. There’re a lot of strong guys out there.  Yesterday’s match and even today’s match kind of proved how strong the field is.

Hewett and Reid’s success to date has played a key role inspiring more disabled people than ever before to pick up a racket and play tennis across the Tennis Foundation’s network of venues, something they are both well aware of and keen to drive further.  The final was broadcast live by the BBC, and speaking to presenter Clare Balding on court after receiving the trophy, Reid talked about their desire to act as an inspiration for others, saying “It’s a really exciting time for the sport and a really exciting time to a part of it.  When we get the opportunity to showcase it to a wider audience it means we hopefully can inspire young kids who have a disability or aren’t active to pick up a sport, that’s why it means so much to us”.

The new three-time Wimbledon champions, along with the rest of the world’s best wheelchair tennis players, now travel up to Nottingham for next week’s British Open ‘Super Series’ event, and Hewett says the pair will head there full of confidence, saying: “Moments like yesterday and moments like today really build us as a team.  We’ll go into next week, you know, with that confidence, just try and enjoy it, to be honest. There’s a lot of pressure, a little bit of a stressful situation the last couple of days. Next week is a chance to get back on the court and just enjoy it.”

With the profile of the sport continuing to grow, a record crowd is expected at Nottingham Tennis Centre next week.  Tickets for the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships are being made available free of charge via , with the event running from 17 – 22 July.

www.tennisfoundation.org.uk/BritishOpen

All photos copyright Getty Images for the Tennis Foundation

 

British Athletics has announced a 53 strong team for the World Para Athletics European Championships and there will be eight Scottish athletes within the team to compete in Berlin from 20-26 August 2018.

T35 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, Maria Lyle, is joined by Paralympic gold medal winning F51 thrower Jo Butterfield MBE,  double gold medal winning T11 sprinter Libby Clegg MBE and T64 silver medalist long jumper Stef Reid MBE. T38 sprinter Ross Paterson is also selected and race runners Gavin Drysdale, Kayleigh Haggo and Hannah Dines also make the team.

As well as these eight Scottish athletes, Ben Rowlings who is coached by Ian Mirfin MBE and currently lives and trains in Scotland with Red Star Athletics Club, also makes the team.

This will be the first time that Race Running, which has its roots in Scotland, has been included in the programme at this level of international event. As a result, this is a very special moment for the trio of Kayleigh, Gavin and Hannah, and their coach Janice Eaglesham MBE, as they win selections for Great Britain and Northern Ireland for the very first time.

These selections  represent another ‘high water mark’ for Para athletics in Scotland with Red Star Athletics Club very much to the fore, as well as other clubs and coaches across Scotland who have embraced disability athletes and sections.

Everyone at SDS wishes the athletes and their coaches every success in Berlin.

The selected athletes and events for the World Para Athletics European Championships are as follows;

Jo Butterfield MBE (Philip Peat; Forth Valley) – F51 Club Throw

Libby Clegg MBE (Joe McDonnell, Charnwood) – T11 100m and 200m

Hannah Dines (Janice Eaglesham) – RR3 100m

Gavin Drysdale (Janice Eaglesham; Red Star) – RR3 100m

Kayleigh Haggo (Janice Eaglesham; Ayr Seaforth) – RR3 100M

Maria Lyle (Jamie Bowie; Team East Lothian) – T35 100m & 200m

Ross Paterson (John Kinder; Red Star) – T38 200m & 400m

Stef Reid MBE (Aston Moore; Charnwood) – T64 Long Jump and 200m* (200m subject to confirmation)

SDS was delighted to learn that Gordon Robertson was recognised with an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to disability athletics due to his work as a volunteer coach and after playing a key role at Red Star Athletics Club.

Gordon has been president of the club for a number of years and one of the clubs longest serving coaches having been involved for more than 25 years. The former World 400m Champion is also a five-time Paralympic medallist, winning medals at the 1984, 1988 and 1996 Games; two silver and three bronze medals.

GB gathered four medals at the BISFed 2018 World Boccia Open Povoa, Portugal. With only a month until the World Championships in Liverpool, three Scottish players contributed to 75% of Boccia UK’s medal haul.

World Number 2 Jamie McCowan was up against Greg Polychronidis of Greece but his winning run came to an end when he succumbed 0-5, to take the silver medal. Polychronidis was also responsible for Patrick Wilson’s defeat in the semi-final but he bounced back to take the bronze medal from another Greek, Anna Ntenta.

In the Individual BC4 World Number 1 Stephen McGuire rallied after a surprise loss in his first match to make it to the semi-finals, where he was beaten by old rival Samuel Andrecijk of Slovakia. He was unable to claim the bronze losing a tight match 3-4 to Pornchok Larpyen of Thailand.

Stephen did leave Portugal with a medal though as he teamed up with Evie Edwards and Louis Saunders to clinch BC4 Pairs bronze. The Slovakians again accounted for GB at the semi final stage but Canada were vanquished in the playoff to bring GB’s medal tally to four.

Neither the BC3 Pair nor BC1/BC2 Team were able to advance through the pool stages.

Full results are available from the BISFed website: http://www.bisfed.com/latest-results/