SDS welcomes Kirsty Ewen to the organisation as part- time regional manager for Highlands and Islands. Kirsty was a member of sportscotland’s Young People’s Sport Panel 2016 – 2018 and is currently a member of the Women and Girls in Sport Advisory Board to the Scottish Government.

As well as the above roles Kirsty brings a wealth of experience from many volunteering roles including Open Water Domestic Events Co-ordinator, volunteering at IPC World Championships, London 2012, Glasgow 2014 Queens Baton Relay and Glasgow 2018 European Championships.

On a weekly basis Kirsty coaches with Inverness Swimming Club and Highland Swim Team. Gavin Macleod, CEO, said: “I am delighted to have Kirsty in our Regional Team, she brings great enthusiasm, experience and has a clear passion for the development of disability sport.”

Kirsty replaces Charlie Forbes who has semi – retired. Kirsty is really excited to be joining the team and looking forward to working with partners across the Highland and Islands to provide more opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in and progress in sport.

Congratulations to Mike Drever from Leven who has once again been invited as one of the country’s leading Para Trap shooters to compete in the British Shooting Grand final being held at Fauxdegla, Wales on22/23rdSeptember.  http://britishshooting.org.uk/uploads/documents/Olympic%20Trap%20Rankings4.pdf

This will be my Mike’s last competition opportunity and training period prior to heading to Lonato in Italy as a member of the Great Britain team for the 2018 Para Trap World Championships October 2-7. http://britishshooting.org.uk/news/title=Para_Sport_World_Cup_Teams_Announced&d=1507

Mike has also been invited and accepted an invitation to be part of the athlete performance programme for shooting led by the governing body, Scottish Target Shooting (STS).  This will provide Mike with access to a world class coach for the year ahead and will undoubtedly contribute to his development as a world class Para trap shooter.

This year Mike has retained his Scottish Para clay titles in Olympic skeet as well as Olympic Trap.

Disability Sport Fife is proud to identify with this proud Orcadian who has established himself as the first Fife based world class Para shooter in any discipline. Mike works at the University of St Andrews and his arrival in Fife has added considerable quality to the squad of Fife Para athletes who represent their country at the highest level in their sport. All the very best Mike in the months ahead in your two major competitions.

Richard Brickley MBE – President Disability Sport Fife

Scotland’s only competitor at this event, Mary flew the flag high in Brazil last week, coming home from the Brazilian Paralympic Centre with two medals in the SL4 women’s singles and SL3-SU5 women’s doubles.

Prior to the competition Mary was part of the first training camp for players, competing, sharing ideas and sparring with new competitors.

With limited numbers in the women’s SU5 event it was decided that SL4 and SU5 women’s singles events would be a joint event. With Mary now playing against a higher class it proved too difficult to get past the SU5 Japanese athletes in the group. Mary came third in her group and was out of the SU5/ SL4 competition, however having beaten Brazil’s SL4 Maria Rayane Lucia (21-8, 21-1) in her group, Mary came out in one of the highest positions of the SL4 category which set her up for a singles silver medal event with SL4 Danielle De Araujo of Brazil. In a convincing two-set score line of 21-8, 21-11 Mary secured the highest medal available for SL4 women’s singles in their category, silver.

Mary’s second medal came in the shape of doubles with her Peruvian partner Jenny Huaranga. The seconds seeds were up against some tough competition with the strong Japanese SU5 women in this category. In the group stages our pair came second with an excellent win over Kaede Kameyama (Japan) and Maraisa Santos (Brazil) in a three-set thriller 21-23, 21-10, 21-10, but lost out to another Japan-Brazil pairing of Abinaecia Da Silva/ Mamiko Toyoda, 9-21, 5-21, securing them a place in the semi-finals.  Here was where the journey ended for the pair who lost out to Japan’s Noriko Ito Akiko Sugino 9-21, 8-21.

Finally, in the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles Mary, playing with Brazils Rogerio De Oliveira, was pipped in the quarter finals v Japans Toshiaki Suenaga and Akiko Sugino 10-21, 8-21. Reaching this stage was thanks to a superb win in the group stages against another strong Japanese pairing of Taku Hiroi and Kaede Kameyama 21-13, 23-21.

Qualification for Tokyo 2020 Paralympics has been outlined and will start this January, Mary is currently GB’s only SL4 woman competing on the international stage and is looking forward to the process of hopefully qualifying for the first Paralympics to involve Para-Badminton.

‘I continue to prepare and work hard in the hope I may qualify for Tokyo 2020. My next tournament is in Japan in six weeks’ time. Thank you for the support from Badminton Scotland and my coaches Kaity Hall and Sarah Bok. Also for the financial support from  Path to Success, QARANC, Archers Hall and Crombies Butchers of Edinburgh.’

Scotland’s Robyn Love is set to represent GB Woman at this year’s World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Hamburg, Germany.  The world’s wheelchair basketball elite will compete from the 16^th – 26^th August with 16 teams and 12 teams qualified for the men’s and woman’s respectively.

West of Scotland born Love, will be competing at her first World Championships having previously played at the European Championships (Spain, 2017 & England, 2015) and the Paralympic Games (Rio, 2016) and will be hoping to build on the previous successes of the Woman’s GB team which included a historic 4^th place finish in Brazil.

Ex Lothian Phoenix star Love’s rise through the sport has been rapid having only began playing in 2013 after a meeting with basketballscotland’s Disability Talent and Pathway Manager, Tina Gordon.  Love, who currently plays for Coyotes, will be part of the GB side that will take on Canada, Spain, Brazil, Australia and Netherlands in Pool B of the World Championships.

Another member of the GB Woman’s set up for the World Championships is Glasgow Rocks first team coach Jen Scally who will in Germany in the role of Team Manager.  Jen, recently led the under 19 Scotland team to a second place finish at the British Wheelchair Basketball Lord Taverners National Junior Championships and will take charge of the same team at the upcoming School Games.

The GB Woman’s team tip off on Thursday against Brazil, 6pm

The individuals competition ran from 11 – 15 August with eight UK Boccia players. David Smith playing in the BC1 classification won 7-2 in the final to secure the gold medal. Congratulations.

The UK team included Scotland’s very own: Stephen McGuire, Patrick Wilson, Jamie McCowan.

All of the Boccia UK team played tremendously well with really tight games. The standard of competition throughout the 33 nations competing has strengthened.

The athletes expressed at the beginning of the week that the Host Organising Committee (HOC) is delivering an awesome event which has wowed athletes and spectators alike with the venue layout, presentation and organisation. The benchmark has truly been raised and congratulations must be extended to the HOC.

This World Championships have raised the bar with online streaming on the BBC, a show court and filming projected onto a large screen which shows a birds eye view adding to spectator enjoyment.

Scotland was also well represented in officiating. Darren Thomson refereed, Sam Thomson was one of the timers, along with Lewis McConnell and Ling Mann, with Catherine Carruthers as a linesperson. Lewis was actually awarded Volunteer of the Day for Tuesday 14 August, an award presented daily and voted by peers within the event volunteers.

From today, all GB Boccia players are involved in team and pairs. Stephen McGuire (BC4), Jamie McCowan and Patrick Wilson(BC3), all take part and we wish them all luck.

Results to date:

• BC4 pairs won against Japan 5-1 and lost against Germany 2-3 in a closely contested gam
• BC3 pairs beat Columbia 9-1 in their opening match

Grampian swimmer Toni Shaw claimed her second medal of the World Para Swimming European Championships in Dublin on Wednesday 16^th August.  The 15-year old secured a Silver medal in the Woman’s S9 100m butterfly to accompany her bronze medal won the previous day.  Shaw (University of Aberdeen Performance) touched in a time of 1:09.18 to set a new Scottish best and pick up her second medal of the Championships, all in what is her first event representing Great Britain.

Stephen Clegg broke the British S12 50m freestyle record twice in the same day, first as he won his morning heat and then later in the final of the event, clocking a time of 24.79 which meant he finished 5^th overall.  City of Sunderland swimmer Clegg continued his record breaking form into day 4 of the competition, recording another British record in the S12 100m backstroke (1:01.46) and making sure he qualified quickest going into this evening’s final.

Toni Shaw and Andrew Mullen added further medals to the haul won by Scottish swimmers at the World Para Swimming European Championships in Dublin on Tuesday 14^th August. 

Fifteen year old Grampian and University of Aberdeen Performance swimmer, Shaw claimed top sport in her heat of the S9 100m freestyle in a time of 1:05.72 and took this form into the final later that day.  Shaw, making her first appearance for Britain and fresh from competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games, claimed bronze in a time of 1:04.27.

City of Glasgow swimmer Mullen also claimed Bronze in the S5 50m backstroke, touching in 36.39 behind Ukraine’s Yaroslav Semenenko (Gold) and Italy’s Antonio Fantin (Silver).  Earlier in the day, multi international medallist Mullen had broken the European record in the heats only for the record to be bettered in the next heat.

The previous day saw East of Scotland swimmer Scott Quin storm to the European Gold Medal in the Men’s SB14 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:07.21, finishing just in front of another Scot – Grampian’s Conner Morrison (University of Aberdeen Performance) who touched in a time of 1.07.53.  Warrender Bath Club’s swimmer Quin turned at the half way point in second spot, just behind Ukranian Vasyl Krainyyhk, however used his notorious strong finish to claim first place and retain the Gold medal won in Funchal, Portugal two years previous.  The Midlothian man highlighted ‘I have swum better but sometimes you have to dig deep’.

Another East swimmer, Stephen Clegg, makes up the Scottish contingent of the Great Britain team at the World Para Swimming European Championships.  The City of Sunderland swimmer claimed first place in the heats of the S12 50m Freestyle (24.82) and will move into the final later on day 3.

Para Sailor Rory McKinna selected to represent Britain and heading for the Para World Sailing Championship in September and coming along to the Scottish Club Trophy to share his experiences.

Ayrshire’s Rory McKinna has had swift rise in competitive sailing having started his sporting journey in 2016 and now enjoying international competition for his country and inspiring other young sailors to take up racing. Over the past year he has been recognised widely receiving both the RYA UK Sailability Young Person of the Year and RYA Scotland Young Person of The Year alongside the Ayrshire Sportability Award.

The full article can be seen on the RYA Scotland website here:

https://www.rya.org.uk/newsevents/news/Pages/Para-World-Championship-beckon-for-Rory.aspx

Stephen McGuire, Jamie McCowan and Patrick Wilson all qualified for the last 16 stage of their respective events after day two of the World Boccia Championships at Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre.

BC4 player Stephen McGuire made it safely through to the knockout stages of the competition after some comprehensive victories during the group stages of the competition including a 12 v 1 win against American Kevin Stokes and a 12 v 0 triumph against Spaniard Vasile Agache.

It was equally as impressive for BC3 player Jamie McCowan who secured 3 wins over the first two days of individual action.  The West of Scotland player and current world number 2 recoded victories over Maria Bjurstrom (Sweden) (7-3), Pieter Cilissen (Belgium) (4-3) and Eric Bussiere (Canada) (4-3) to secure his passage into the last 16 on day 3.

Edinburgh based player Patrick Wilson found things slightly trickier in Pool G, scraping through to the last 16 stage on points difference.  Wilson recorded one victory (5 – 1 v Ling Yan Tsang) and lost 2 group matches, including one against current Paralympic BC3 Champion Howon Jeong (7 – 3) with Wilson claiming the last end by 3 shots to take some confidence into day 3 of the competition.  However, this was to prove the end of the road for the Borders born BC3 player as he was defeated 7-1 by Russian player Aleksander Legostaev at the last 16 stage, meaning an exit from the individual competition.

BC4 World number 1, Stephen McGuire was up against German athlete Boris Nicolai and struggled for momentum after losing the first end by 3.  McGuire managed to win the next two ends, leaving the score 3-2 to Nicolai moving into the final end.  The German managed to defend the lead and eventually claimed the match, 4-2 and knocking the Scot out.

Jamie McCowan continued his impressive form the first two days, as he came up against Hong Kong’s Wing Tung Liu at the last 16 stage.  McCowan raced into an early lead and his opponent from Hong Kong found it difficult to get back into the match despite winning the 3^rd end by 1 shot – McCowan eventually claiming the victory 3-1.

Great Britain’s David Smith also moved into the Quarter Final stage with a 9-o victory against Spain’s Ferran Ribas.