Suspension of all squads, programmes, events, courses and competitions from Saturday 14^th March 2020.

Following the increase in Covid-19 (Coronavirus) cases in Scotland in recent days, Scottish Disability Sport has taken the decision to suspend all squads, programmes, events, courses and competitions with effect from Saturday 14^th March until further notice.

We have taken this decision in the best interests of the athletes and participants with a disability, many of whom may have underlying health conditions.

Scottish Disability Sport will continue to monitor and review the situation on an ongoing basis and will communicate any changes in circumstances as they arise, through social media or our website www.scottishdisabilitysport.com.

If you have any questions please contact Scottish Disability Sport at admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

SDS Young Persons Sport Panel and Young Start Residential 29 February – 1 March 2020

The SDS Young Persons Sport Panel and Young Start Programme gathered in Largs for a 2 day residential with a packed agenda. We were delighted that Aileen Neilson, the ambassador for the programme, was able to join us for the weekend. The young people came together to consider the following:

• Video making skills
• SDS Strategic Plan Consultation
• Mental Heath Awareness

The two days began with an excellent session led by Scott Tait of Wee Flee Productions on creating videos on smart phones – who knew mobiles could do so much! Please see below for one of the videos made over the weekend and more will be posted in the near future.

https://youtu.be/1QjAmwhR_hw

After this workshop the group participated in the SDS Strategic Planning Consultation and provided some very insightful feedback to help shape the SDS plan 2021 onwards. The voice of the young people is essential to future planning and they are key drivers in future vision of SDS.

It was then time to let off some steam after a full afternoon of workshops and the young people took part in various sporting activities such as badminton, basketball and archery before heading off to dinner. The evening concluded with an impromptu guitar and singing session – who knew there was such musical talent amongst the group!

Day Two began with some with some gentle stretching to set us up for a productive day ahead.

Robert Nesbit and Kirsty Ewen from SAMH delivered a fantastic workshop on mental health where we discussed what mental health is and the importance of it to everyone’s wellbeing.  The young people hope to develop a mental health toolbox for positive mental health that they can share with other young people in the future.

Craig Smith then led the group through future planning of programme and what it would look like over the next three years.

The weekend finished with a viewing of all of the great videos the young people made over the two days, which will appear soon on the SDS YouTube Channel.

The Evaluation of the two days indicated that it was an exceptionally worthwhile weekend for all involved and the group really felt they had left with new skills, fun memories, influencing future direction and good ideas for the next stage of the programme.

The Scottish Wheelchair Curling Squad concluded their 2020 World Wheelchair Curling Championship campaign with an 11-1 victory over the Czech Republic and a narrow 4-7 defeat to South Korea. This final result meant that the Scots missed out on the final stages of the competition and had to settle for a ninth-place finish.

The Scots had travelled to Wetzikon, Switzerland in confident mood, having taken the silver medal at the 2019 World Championships in Stirling. Hugh Nibloe’s rink got of to a slow start with defeats to Russia and Slovakia and finished the group stage of the competition with a record of 4 wins and 7 losses.

However, Scotland avoided relegation from the top group of wheelchair curling nations and will have the opportunity to get back on the ice at the 2021 World Championships. They also remain in a strong position to qualify ParalympicsGB for the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. Winter Paralympic qualifying points are accrued over a three year period in the build up to Beijing and Scotland will be looking to add to the impressive start they made to that process when finishing runners up to Paralympic Champions China in last year’s World Championship final.

The Scottish Squad at the 2020 World Championships in Wetzikon, Switzerland, were as follows;

Team Scotland:

Hugh Nibloe (Stirling)

Robert McPherson (Bellshill)

Gary Smith (Edinburgh)

Charlotte McKenna (Bridge of Allan)

Meggan Dawson-Farrell – Alternate (Tullibody)

Sheila Swan – Coach (Perth)

Images : Graeme Hart

Glasgow University Sports Association (GUSA) have undertaken a year long funding campaign, having chosen Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) as their Charity of the Year. The Glasgow students have undertaken a wide variety of fundraising events which has brought in an amazing £1,972 which will go towards supporting the SDS national events programme to provide access to competitive sports for athletes and players with a disability from across Scotland.

Everyone at SDS would like to take this opportunity to thanks all the students involved in this mammoth fundraising effort for all their hard work in support of our Association. The funds raised will have a real impact on the opportunities we offer across Scotland.

The SDS Parasport Festival Series funded by the Celtic FC Foundation kicked off this week with two phenomenal events taking place in the West of Scotland and Tayside.

SDS works with many partners at local, regional and national levels and the Parasport Festivals are just one example of how all partners come together to make a difference in the lives of the young people who participate at the events.

To make these happen, Scottish governing bodies of sport and  local sports clubs deliver the fun sport activities. They are always very ably supported in their delivery by Young Leaders from Local Authorities and students from nearby further and higher education institutions.

The purpose of these events is to introduce mainstream school pupils with physical disabilities and hearing and visual impairments to a wide range of sports that they may not experience at school, and then offer tailored support to enable them to regularly participate in their chosen sport.

To date almost 2,000 young people have benefitted from attending these events with an average transition rate into weekly activity of 13%.

If you or anyone you know would like to attend a para sport festival, there are still opportunities to participate in the events listed below:

If you are unable to make any of these events but would like to get involved in disability sport please get in touch by emailing admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com or telephone Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130.

See reports from the West of Scotland and Tayside events below.

Fun was the Theme of the Day at the West of Scotland Parasport

On the 2^nd March 2020 the 11^th West Parasport Festival was held at the On-X Linwood for the first time. We had children and young people from P5-S6 mainstream schools from the West with physical disabilities and visual and hearing impairments attending to try out various sports. There were 59 participants from 43 schools from 12 out of 13 local authorities in the west of Scotland.

The On-X was the new venue due to changes at Ravenscraig, although different the new venue provided an opportunity to offer swimming for the very first time.

The event was a great success and couldn’t have happened without the partners listed below who delivered their sport in a fun way to engage all pupils.

• Athletics (Victoria Park AC)
• Badminton (Badminton Scotland)
• Basketball (Basketball Scotland)
• Boccia (SDS)
• Football (Celtic FC Foundation)
• Judo (JudoScotland)
• Swimming (Scottish Swimming, Temple Swimming Club, Kilmarnock Jets)
• Table Tennis (Table Tennis Scotland)
• Tennis (Tennis Scotland)

Thanks must go to the 25 Young Sports Leaders from Renfrewshire Leisure and 20 students from West College Scotland who supported the event and brought their positivity and enthusiasm to support deliverers and participants on the day. Paralympic and Deaflympic role models Danielle Joyce and Sam Ingram were on hand to support activities and tell everyone about their journey.

Andrew MacKenzie (SDS West Regional Development Manager) said: “The event was great, and we are so happy the participants are getting to try so many different sports. The smiles on their faces told the story very well. Bringing these opportunities for the children and for sports to promote their sessions and build on the pathways really shows how good the Parasport is. Having Paralympians at the event really shows that you can make it to the top of your level and hopefully this will encourage children to stay in sport, whether they go to the top level or for fun.”

A special thank you to the Celtic FC Foundation for supporting the event, hosts Renfrewshire Leisure, the West Branches, West Active Schools, all the sports, Renfrewshire Young Sports Leaders, West College Scotland students and the On-X staff for their support. With a big thank you to the parents, teachers and helpers for supporting as well.

We look forward to following up with all participants who attended to support the next step of their journey in parasport.

If you or anyone you know would like to get involved in disability sport please email admin@scottishdisabilitysport.com or alternatively telephone Scottish Disability Sport on 0131 317 1130.