Following the spectacular Opening Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Paralympic Games in the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, it was time for Scotland’s athletes and players within the ParalympicsGB team to focus on the competition for medals on day one of the Games.

Swimming

It wasn’t long before the first Scottish medal of the Games had been secured. Scotland’s Andrew Mullen had travelled to Rio in confident mood following his silver medal in the S5 200m Freestyle at the IPC World Championships in Glasgow in 2015. Andrew qualified for the final of the S5 200m Freestyle in Rio with a time of 2:43.20 in the heats. In the final, Andrew started strongly and didn’t let the early pace of local hero, Daniel Dias, distract him. However, Dias had the race won by the half way mark and the race for silver and bronze was the focus of attention.

In the end, gold went to home favourite Daniel Dias in 2:27.88 with American Roy Perkins second and 19-year-old Mullen third in 2:40.65, a new British record.

After his race Andrew said:

“It’s great to have a won a Paralympic medal and I am really stoked I was able to do so by swimming my best time”.

“What a great crowd to do it in front of. Brazil have put on a great venue and a great Paralympic Games so I am really pleased to get my first medal in such a setting.”

Wheelchair Basketball

Scotland’s Robyn Love, competing in her first Paralympic Games, was involved in GB Women’s opening Group A wheelchair basketball match against World Champions Canada. In a closely fought encounter, it was the experienced Canadians who came out on top with a  43-36 victory. GB’s next Group fixture will be against Argentina followed by Germany and Brazil.

Football 7 a Side

It was also the opening match in Pool A for Scots Martin Hickman, Jonathan Paterson and David Porcher as part of the GB Football 7 a Side squad. GB had a difficult opening match against hosts Brazil who are currently third in the world rankings. GB were narrowly beaten 2-1 at the Deodoro Stadium in Rio with Livingston’s David Porcher scoring on his GB debut.

Goalscorer Porcher said:

“I think we played a great game. We took the game to Brazil and they were struggling at the end. No medal is won on the first game. So we will go again and take it from there. The boys did brilliantly.”

GB face world ranked number one Ukraine on 10 September before concluding their Group A fixtures against the Republic of Ireland on the 12 September.

Athletics

Paralympic debutante Sammi Kinghorn from Gordon in the Scottish Borders was also in action in the T53 100m. Sammi is the current European Champion over 100m having won the gold medal in Swansea in 2014. She finished second in her heat in a time of 17.01 to qualify third fastest for the final.

In the final Sammi finished fifth in 17.13 seconds with the gold medal going to China’s Lisha Huang.

Sammi said;

“I’m so pleased with all the support I’ve had and I couldn’t do it without them”.

“I’ve only been doing the sport for three and a half years so hopefully one day I’ll have the gold medal around my neck.”

Libby Clegg, competing in her third Paralympic Games, posted a lifetime best 12.17 in her heat to qualify for the semi-final and final of the T11 100m. Libby, who competed in Beijing and London in the T 12 class, was reclassified as a T11 athlete earlier this year due to her deteriorating eye condition.

Libby, who set a world record in the T11 200m at the Anniversary Games earlier this summer and was a silver medallist in the T12 100m at London 2012, was the joint second fastest qualifier to progress.

Libby said:

“It’s great to be here, I’m the first Brit on the track as well so I was a bit unsure what to expect coming through but I know for tomorrow”.

“I wanted to come out here and start strongly and set the team up for some positive performances.”

Cycling

Congratulation also to former SDS Academy Athlete, Stephen Bate who won a fantastic gold medal in the 4000m individual pursuit in the velodrome. Steve and pilot Adam Duggleby, beat Dutch duo Vincent ter Schure and Timo Franson to the gold in a time of 4:08.631.

The charity Guide Dogs have produced a fantastic new short film to mark the start of the Paralympic Games. The film is titled A Test of Blind Ambition and features 3D audio, asking the viewer to plug in headphones and close their eyes to get a sense of what it is like to experience the world without sight.

The film can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/kg8-2k6AnXo.

If you or someone you know has a visual impairment, or other disability, and would like to get involved in sport, please contact Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130 or email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Video credits
Client, Guide Dogs: Head of Digital: Nick Hodder, Project Manager: James Kell
Don’t Panic: Account Manager: Chloe Cross, Account Executive: Gabriel Mathews, Creative Director: Richard Beer, Creative: George McCallum

The National Deaf Children’s Society would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted, shared and supported The Deaf-Friendly Swimming Project in the 2016 National Lottery Awards… WE WON!!

We have a glitzy, red carpet awards ceremony to go to in London this week and we will be on BBC One on 12 September!  The prize money will help us change the lives of even more deaf young people in Scotland.

Tune into Lottery Stars on BBC One at 10:45pm on Monday to see NDCS’s Deaf-Friendly Swimming Project in action!  John Barrowman will present us with the National Lottery Sports Award 2016.

The Inclusive Activities team will also be rubbing shoulders with Katie Derham, Max Whitlock, Ainsley Harriott, Anita Rani and Kimberley Wyatt.

For more information on the project and the award, see:
http://www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/project/deaf-friendly-swimming-project

Many of Scotland’s leading bowlers were present in Aberdeen for the 2016 National Championships.  SDS returned to Westburn Park, Aberdeen for another eventful Championships. The picturesque park in the heart of the Granite City has been the home of the Championships for over twenty years now and as ever Sport Aberdeen proved to be excellent hosts. 

Conditions were ideal as players from all over Scotland descended on the three-green club. Particularly pleasing was the presence of new bowlers at the Championships from Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire. Brendan Handling from D&G – fresh from his victory in the Bowls Scotland National Championships B7/8 class and Robert Barr from Ayrshire – joined last year’s runner-up in this section Fife’s Billy Allan and Forth Valley’s Derek Hartley in a strong section that resulted ultimately in a win for one of the most decorated Scottish players out there – Billy Allan. Billy emerged victorious from Robert and Derek respectively in a final round-robin format of very closely contested matches.

Rosemary Lenton from Dumfries & Galloway – a five-time former champion here – went one better than last year when she lost in the final to Jim Sellar by lifting the Mixed Wheelchair title defeating South Lanarkshire’s Martin Elliot comfortably in the final.

The Thomas Taylor trophy was contested by bowlers from four branches with Tracy Black from Forth Valley and Fife’s Mary Wilson leading the way in the group stages. Tracy was strong favourite in the final owing to a fairly comfortable group win over Mary, however was pushed all the way to the end in a tense final, eventually winning by one shot. This meant the Forth Valley bowler had retained the title she won for the first time last year.

The closest section of all proved to be the combined Section 6/7 classes where both groups were decided by shot difference for the first three bowlers in each group. Fraser Mathieson from Forth Valley finished top of his group despite a one-shot loss to Fife’s Neil Laughlin and Lothian’s Carole Martin progressed after a 6-5 win over Grampian’s Ali Burt. Fraser’s recent experiences as part of successful Scotland team’s ensured he eased away to victory over Carole to reclaim the title he won in 2014.

Fife claimed three out of four finalists in Sections 8 (male) & 9 (female) for players with a learning disability. The experienced former champion Daryl Stewart lost out to Andrew Harrison from South Lanarkshire who claimed his maiden title here. Wendy Thomson beat Julie Allan in an all East-Fife final.

SDS congratulates all winners on their achievements and are already looking forward to next year’s championships.

SDS is indebted once again to the support offered in staging the championships by Aberdeen City Council and Sport Aberdeen.

 

Just when you thought the late nights staying up to watch Scotland’s most inspirational athletes chase medals in Rio were over, they are about to command our attention again when the Paralympic Games gets under way on September 7.

sportscotland’s Sport First has now settled into its new online home and have replicated their “Scots on Team GB” Olympic infographic with a Paralympics version to illustrate who you can cheer on in Rio from a Scottish perspective.

https://sportfirst.sportscotland.org.uk/articles/who-are-the-scots-on-paragb/

33 Scots across 12 sports have been selected to the ParalympicsGB team for the Rio Games making up 12.5% of the total athletes selected. Rio will also see an increase of 18% in Scottish athlete numbers form London 2012 and 60% of the Scots competing in Rio will be making their Paralympic debuts.

“The Rio Olympic Games will go down as the most successful Games for Team GB and indeed Scotland,” said Mike Whittingham, Director of High Performance at the sportscotland institute of sport. “I want to say a huge thank you to everybody who contributed to this success in Rio.

“We must now concentrate our attention on the final preparations for the Paralympics which is already facing additional challenges. Paralympic Team GB has a very real target of 122 medals or more and now with Russia losing their appeal there are further opportunities presenting themselves. We have 33 Scottish athletes selected, which is a record number in this modern era, and we will be supporting all our British and Scottish athletes as they also strive to make history.”

British League Premier Division
Saturday 27th August 2016 at 3.00pm

Drumchapel Table Tennis Club will be hosting their first British League (Premier Division) match of the 2016/2017 season, on Saturday 27^th August at 3.00pm.

Entry is free and everyone is welcome. A good crowd to cheer on the team would be wonderful.

DRUMCHAPEL GLASGOW 1 v HALTON 1

Playing at Drumchapel Table Tennis Club
195b Drumry Road East
Glasgow G15 8NS
Tel: 0141 944 7276

Leading Fife bowlers with a physical, sensory and learning disability are enjoying a wonderful year in major competitions throughout the UK. Fife’s top physically disabled and visually impaired bowlers made a significant contribution to Team Scotland’s superb win in the 2016 Home Nations at Kelvingrove and Fife’s leading bowlers with a learning disability successfully defended the Scottish Inter Area team title. Individual Fife bowlers have been prominent in every major bowls competition organised by Scottish Disability Sport in 2016 and yet again there were Fife successes at the inclusive national championships organised by Bowls Scotland at Northfield in Ayr.

One of the most experienced and respected Disability Sport Fife bowlers is Eleanor Clark from Kirkcaldy. Eleanor’s sight has been deteriorating each year and she now bowls in class B1 which is the section for totally blind bowlers. Previously she bowled as a partially sighted bowler in the B2 class and the change has resulted in her having to make major adjustments in technique and using occlusion glasses. All B1 sports men and women across all sports use blacked out glasses or goggles to ensure fairness across the class. Adjusting to this new way of playing has been challenging but Eleanor believes it was inevitable that one day she would have to change and she is successfully training to accommodate her new way of playing.

To confirm her progress Eleanor recently won the B1 singles title at the 2016 National Championships organised by the Scottish Association of Blind Bowlers (SABB) at Ardgowan in Greenock. Eleanor is now preparing for the British Championships at Leamington Spa in mid September. This year she will be without reigning world champion and dear friend Maria Spencer from Dunfermline who has gone through major surgery but hopes to return to playing next year.

Eleanor’s director on the green is Doreen Strachan from West Lothian. Doreen supported Eleanor in Greenock and will travel south with her next month to challenge for the British title. Eleanor has been selected by SABB to compete at the 2017 World Championships in Cape Town and she is hopeful that Doreen will be by her side once again. Eleanor is a member of Kirkcaldy Blind Bowlers and playes at the Fair Isle club.

Eleanor’s success this year is all the more remarkable because of the recent sudden and unexpected loss of her partner Jim of 30 years. Jim was always by her side and a major support throughout her illustrious bowling career. The loss of Jim has affected her life in so many ways but this remarkable sportswoman is determined to do what she believes Jim would want her to do and that is to further her bowling career. Eleanor has many friends and a strong support team who will support her all the way.

Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife

Fife’s 25th Paralympian, Derek Rae from Kirkcaldy and Fife Athletic Club, finished second in the Haddington Half Marathon in a time of 1:13.36 in challenging conditions and over a course that Derek described as tough. Coach Ron Morrison was satisfied with the performance of his athlete.

Derek will compete for GB in the marathon in Rio in the T46 class where he is ranked UK number one. Derek will be GB’s only ambulant marathon runner in Rio. The Haddington event is one of several races lined up by coach Ron for Derek before he heads off to his first Paralympic Games. At the Alloa half marathon in March this year Derek ran 1:14.32 and in July he ran a personal best for 5000 metres of 16:05.31.

The opening ceremony for the Paralympic Games in Rio is scheduled for Wednesday 7th September and the Closing Ceremony Sunday 18th September. The athletics programme starts on September 8th and runs through until the final day of the Games. Derek will run his marathon on the morning of the closing ceremony.

Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife