Four Scottish players are once again competing in the World Stage after being selected to be part of the Boccia UK Team competing in the Boccia World Open in Seville, Spain, between 2 and 6 August.

Player                                    Classification                      Home Town

Patrick Wilson                      BC3                                        Peebles, Edinburgh

Jamie McCowan                  BC3                                        Dundonald, Ayrshire

Scott McCowan                    BC3                                        Dundonald, Ayrshire

Stephen McGuire                BC4                                        Hamilton, South Lanarkshire

In addition to the players the Scottish contingent includes Boccia UK Performance Coach Claire Morrison and three ramp assistants, Linda McCowan, Gary McCowan and William Wilson

The four players competed in Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and continue to be part of the Boccia UK World Class Programme. Other Boccia UK Team mates competing in Spain are Will Hipwell, Claire Taggart, David Smith and Evie Edwards.

The Boccia UK Players will be looking to have strong performances as this competition contributes to their qualification for athletes taking part for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Scottish Disability Sport wishes them every success in their qualification quest for Tokyo.

This event is being streamed live by BISFed. Click here for the live stream.

SDS with partners will shortly be rolling out new Boccia participation sessions across Scotland thanks to funding through the BIG Lottery Fund.

If you or anyone you know has a disability and would like to try the sport of Boccia please telephone Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130 or alternatively please  email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com

 

 

 

 

 

Congratulations to five Scottish Swimmers who have been selected to compete in the World Para Swimming Championships in Mexico which takes place from 30 September – 6 October. 

Three of the swimmers will make their debut in the World Para Swimming Championships.

British Para-Swimming has announced a 26-strong team that features eight Paralympic Champions including Ollie Hynd, Bethany Firth, Ellie Robinson and Matt Wylie alongside eight athletes making their senior international debuts at a major competition.

The swimmers were selected based on impressive performances at the British Summer Championships.

The Scots who make up 20% of the British Team are:

Stephen Clegg – University of Stirling

Conner Morrison – University of Aberdeen

Scott Quin – Warrender

Andrew Mullen – City of Glasgow

Toni Shaw – Cults Otter

Scottish Disability Sport is delighted for the swimmers and wish them every success at the event.

If you or any one you know has a disability and would like to get involved in the sport of swimming please telephone Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130 or alternatively email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com

 

The 23rd Summer Deaflympic Games, which had started on July 18 and brought together more than 3 thousand athletes from 97 countries, ended on the 30th of July.

DeaflympicGB were in attendance once again with a team of 62 athletes, 10 of whom were Scots.  GB finished 14^th in the medal table wining three golds, one silver and five bronze medals.  Significantly, it was the Scottish athletes who were in form as they won seven of the eight individual medals won, whilst three of the four person 100m mixed relay team were Scottish, in the ninth medal.

To put this in perspective; of all the medals given to GB athletes at the Games, 83% of them, including all three golds, hung around the necks of the Scottish athletes.  A more than significant contribution!

Leading the way in the medal count was Scotland’s exceptional deaf swimmers, Danielle Joyce and Jack McComish, who amassed 7 medals between them.

Joyce claimed double gold in the 100m freestyle and 50m freestyle, as well as double bronze in the 50m backstroke and 4x100m mixed relay.  Whilst, McComish delivered gold in the 100m breaststroke, as well as three bronze medals in the 50m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 4x100m mixed relay.  Both swimmers have been involved in Scottish Disability Sport programmes and are real ambassadors for deaf sport.

Lanarkshire ASC swimmer Shiona McClafferty was also part of the 4x100m mixed relay team that won Bronze.

There was Scottish success on the golf course for Perth’s Steven Cafferty who won bronze, following a playoff, in the sports debut at a Deaflympics.

The Deaflympics is the pinnacle for any deaf athlete and it is the second oldest multi-sport and cultural festival in the world, with a proud history stretching back to the first Games in Paris, in 1924. The event ensures that high performance athletes with a hearing impairment get that same Olympic experience as their hearing counterparts.

For more information please see:
http://ukdeafsport.org.uk/deaflympics/

http://deaflympics2017.org/en/home-page

Scottish para archers Nathan MacQueen and Brad Stewart proved their class at the European Cup that took place last week at the SC Stadium in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic.

The duo, who are members of the University of Edinburgh Archery Club and coached by Alistair Whittingham, formed part of the men’s Open Compound Team, along with England’s John Walker.  The team comfortably defeated Austria and Ukraine in the early stages of the tournament, whilst also breaking a European record in doing so.  As a result, they set up a gold medal shoot against the top seeds, Iran.

It was an extremely tight affair, where the Brits were edged out into Silver position.  This is a fantastic achievement for the archers, particularly for Fife based Brad Stewart, who was making his international debut.

Great Britain & Northern Ireland finished third in the medal table, behind China and the USA, winning an incredible 39 medals at the IPC World Athletics Championships held in London over the past nine days.  The tally, which includes 18 golds, is GB’s best since the Birmingham Championships in 1998.

The London Stadium, which hosted the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, once again delivered an incredible event; showcasing para athletics to the masses, with more than 230,000 spectators attending.  In context, this is more than in all eight of the previous championships combined!  The word ‘legacy’ springs to mind……

This unprecedented success has prompted UK Athletics, with the support of the British Paralympic Association, to enter into negotiations to repeat the feat by bringing the next IPC World Championships back to London in 2019.

Central to proceedings in London was a quartet of talented Scots, who claimed three gold medals and three bronze medals between them.

Stef Reid became World Champion in the T44 Long Jump, delivering the first of ‘Scotland’s’ gold medals, prior to spending the rest of the Championships on Channel 4’s sofa, working as a pundit! With an undoubted talent for broadcasting, she demonstrated her in depth insight and knowledge of all track and field disciplines.

East Lothian’s teenage sprinter, Maria Lyle, equalled her Rio 2016 Paralympic medal haul of two bronze medals in the T35 100m and 200m, whilst F51 Club Throw Paralympic Champion, Jo Butterfield MBE, finished in fourth place and had to withdraw from the Discus due to injury.

However, one of the stars of the Championships was Borderer, Samantha Kinghorn, who became double World Champion in the T53 100m and 200m.  Her 200m achievement was a new World Record!  Sammi also claimed a bronze medal in the 400m and a fifth place finish in the 800m, to showcase her ability across a range of distances at the extremely young age (for a wheelchair racer) of 21.  The achievement is all the more remarkable, considering 10 months ago, she returned empty handed from Rio last summer.  This highlights the huge amount of work she has put in with her coach, and Scottish Athletics’ Para Events Lead, Ian Mirfin MBE.

Although, well known in Scotland, Sammi’s profile has grown considerably across the globe due to her performances on the track, as well as her incredibly positive and insightful post-race interviews.  Below are several quotes taken from the media over the course of the Championships:

“My class isn’t an easy one to win, but I’ve spent the last year getting a bit stronger and just learning so much. I also got a new chair in February and it’s just a bit lower and a bit more aerodynamic. It’s been a big learning curve. I knew that I wanted it after Rio. I wanted it more than anything. I wanted to be the best in the world so I’ve just trained and trained every session.” The Scotsman, 24 July 2017

“I really just believe this is the start,” she said. “I have got so much more to give. I am still only 21, have still not reached maturity yet. They reckon 28 is when we start to mature so I have still got a lot of time, and I hope this year I can keep getting faster and faster.” Evening Standard, 24 July 2017

“I’d love to be as good as Tatyana McFadden and compete at every distance and smash them all. I’d love to be the first T53 to go under 16 seconds so that’s my aim between now and Tokyo. Hopefully, one day I can be unbeatable.” Evening Standard, 24 July 2017

“I hoped I’d win one medal, but to win three with two gold has been incredible. My class is so unbelievably competitive, so I think it’s going to take a couple of months for it to actually sink in properly.” British Athletics, 23 July 2017

 

Scottish Disability Sport is incredibly proud of all our athletes and we wish them every success on the Track-to-Tokyo…..

Scottish Disability Sport is delighted to be invited by Bowls Scotland to include para-bowls events in the National Championships at Ayr Northfield on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 July 2017.

Previously we have had competition in the Men’s B6 and Men’s B7/8 classification, as well as a ladies Open class competition.  However, 2017 is a land mark year, as we will have competition in the men’s and ladies B2/B3 classification for bowlers with a visual impairment.  This gives us an extended programme, covering the vast majority of para bowls classification groups.

At the present time the event is by invitation only and we have selected the best players within Scotland to compete.  As we progress, we hope to introduce a qualification system in order to gain a place at Northfield.

We are in a vitally important phase within the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games cycle, with places in the B6/B7/B8 Open Triple and the B2/B3 Mixed Pair being fiercely contested ahead of the squad announcement in November.  The National Championships in Ayr provides another opportunity for our players to showcase their talents, whilst also allowing the coaches to assess player performances as part of our selection process.

Please see the full draw here.