Scottish Disability Sport welcomed a record number of participants to their Tayside Parasport Festival on Wednesday, 6^th March at Dundee and Angus College, Gardyne Campus.

Participation numbers grew by 31% on the previous highest total for the region, and school pupils from P1-S6 with a physical disability or visual / hearing impairment had the opportunity to try out a variety of para-sports including wheelchair basketball, boccia, badminton and tennis in the morning and football, wheelchair rugby, bowls, archery and powerchair football in the afternoon.

This event was delivered in partnership with some fantastic coaches from local community clubs and national governing bodies. These included Dundee Dragons, Tayside Dynamos, Forthill Community Tennis Club, Balgay Bowling Club, Ancrum Archery, Dundee United Para-Football Club along with SGBs for boccia, Bowls Scotland and Badminton Scotland.

The event was also supported by 30 amazing and enthusiastic sports development students from Dundee & Angus College who helped make the day fun and supportive for all taking part.

Thank you as always to the Celtic FC Foundation and BP Coast 2 Coast for their continued support in making these events possible.

Swimmers from all across Grampian flocked to Fraserburgh Swimming Pool for this year’s annual Mary Duncan Swimming Gala, in what turned out to be an exciting afternoon of quality competitive swimming.

The event, which serves as a qualifier for the SDS Senior Swimming Championships, was attended by a record 55 swimmers, some of whom had their debut para swimming events. The swimmers were on good form and there were some top swims put in by both new and seasoned athletes.

Noteable performances came from Matthew Scott, who claimed a new PB for his 100m IM. Tegan Davidson’s 50m Freestyle was also worthy of celebration. Other fantastic performances came from newcomer, Natalia Chociaj, Lucy Thomas, Jason Cobb, Ronan Hastings, James Leith, Danielle Rait, Bryden Lee & Michael Sutherland. That being said, all of the swimmers gave it their all and swam their best on the day, so a massive congratulations goes to everyone who took part.

As well as a high level of participant entries, the event was well-served by an abundance of volunteers including parents, branch members, swimming club coaches and club committee members. A huge thank you goes to everyone who helped out on the day with marshalling, timekeeping, recording, judging, handing out medals and all of the other tasks that these unsung heroes do to make it all happen. A special thank you goes to Pauline Stirling who coordinated all of the entries, brought everyone together and managed the event on the day.

If you, or someone you know, lives with a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment and would like to get more involved in sport, please get in touch with Alison Shaw (Regional Manager for Scottish Disability Sport) on 07828 744 848 or alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

Thanks to the receipt of significant local funding, school-aged children in Aberdeen will have increased and improved access to boccia within their school & community environments.

The Active Aberdeen Partnership, which develops the sporting infrastructure and strategy across the whole of the city, granted Scottish Disability Sport enough funds to purchase boccia kits for each of the city’s Active Schools Coordinators and Active Schools Assistants, and to provide a Boccia Leaders’ Workshop for the recipients of the kit, local volunteers & school staff.

This project has been developed as a partnership between Active Schools Aberdeen & Scottish Disability Sport and aims to offer ongoing lunchtime boccia sessions in each primary & secondary school in the city, which are open to all of their pupils (both with and without disabilities). This will be achieved through the provision of the kit and training, and by linking with existing volunteering programmes within each community. In time, we also hope to be able to offer inter-school Boccia Bonanza Festivals and to launch after school & community clubs in several ASGs to provide a pathway for eligible players to develop in the sport.

If you, or someone you know, lives with a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment and would like to get more involved in sport, please get in touch with Alison Shaw (Regional Manager for Scottish Disability Sport) on 07828 744 848 or alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com

A young gymnast from Grampian has returned with a plethora of silverware and titles from the 2019 Scottish Gymnastics Championships.

Orianne Slater, from Aberdeen, came home with Championship titles in Uneven Bars, Beam, Floor and Vault in the Womens’ Artistic Disability Masters category.

The dedicated gymnast, who trains and competes with Garioch Amateur Gymnastics Club, is aged just 17 and is relatively new to the senior gymnastics scene. Prior to her transition to senior gymnastics, Orianne took the junior gymnastics events by storm & was named British Gymnastics Girls’ Artistic Disability Champion in consecutive years.
2019 is looking to be a very promising year for Orianne, and she’s now hard at work training for the British Gymnastics Championships, which will be held in Liverpool later this year.

Well done to Orianne and her coaches, Jamie Czop and Trish Swan, and good luck for the national events that await!

If you, or someone you know, lives with a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment and would like to get more involved in sport, please get in touch with Alison Shaw (Regional Manager for Scottish Disability Sport) on 07828 744 848 or alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

TEA, TALK & TRY!

Aberdeen Sports Village, Linksfield Road, Aberdeen AB24 5RU

GOGA supporting disabled and non-disabled people being active together: boccia, badminton, boxing, body mind wellbeing, squad, swimming and table tennis with tea and chat.

Wednesday 27th February 2019, 1.30pm – 4.30pm (squash 1.30-2.30 and swimming 4.00-4.30)

For more information and to register contact Kevin Mathew on kevin.mathew1@abdn.ac.uk or Shaun Powell on shaunpowellgogagrampian@gmail.com, or phone 07565 673 578.

 

SDS Central and Forth Valley Disability Sport are extremely excited to announce a new sponsorship collaboration within the Central region.

Regional representatives were kindly approached by Founding Director of Sheridan Property Consultants who stated that the company fully supported the impact the Central Regional Swimming Squad and GOGA for all Swimming Sessions were making to the swimmers within the region. In turn they approached partners to become the official sponsor for the projects for the 2019 – 2020 season.

SDS Central and Forth Valley Disability Sport would like to officially thank Sheridan Property Consultants for their very kind donation. The impact this funding will make will support and develop many disability swimmers within the Central region.

For more information on Sheridan Property Consultants please visit www.sheridanproperty.co.uk.

To find out more about disability sport in Central Scotland and how to get involved please contact: Cheryl Lappin (SDS RDM) at cheryl.lappin@scottishdisabilitysport.com / Phone: 07577 830360.

Live Life Aberdeenshire in partnership with The National Deaf Children’s Society are holding deaf-friendly swimming lessons for deaf children and young people in Aberdeenshire.

The activities are suitable for all abilities from complete beginners to confident swimmers.

Children will take part in fun activities and learn new skills, delivered by fully qualified swimming teachers trained by NDCS in deaf awareness.

When and Where	Ellon  Community Pool, Kellie Pearl Way, Ellon AB41 8LF Every Tuesday, starting 5th March 2019 Beginners at 6pm Improvers/advanced at 6.30om
Cost	£33 for 1st block of 16 lessons £5.50 a month after 1st block
Who for	Age 4+

Bookings: 01358 727 910 (Press 2 – Learn to Swim or Reece Ironside), reece.ironside@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Further info: Eleanor Connelly – swimming@ndcs.org.uk, 0141 354 7850

www.ndcs.org.uk/swimming

A football project to engage and improve health outcomes for deaf pupils in Aberdeen has been hailed a success.

Aberdeen Football Club Community Trust has been running GoFitba for the past 12 weeks with the Aberdeen School for the Deaf. GoFitba is a project funded by the Scottish Football Partnership.

The programme is aimed at primary school children and provides an hour of football activity followed by an hour of health and wellbeing workshops and a healthy meal.

Each organisation that receives funding for the project can choose which school they deliver in and AFCCT chose the Aberdeen School for the Deaf as there were no football sessions or after school clubs running for the 13 pupils who attend.

10 of the pupils decided to sign up and have attended for the past 12 weeks. The group has been to an AFC match, for some of whom it was their first, and will attend another on the 16th of February vs. St Mirren. They also tried new foods over the course of the programme from tuna and sweetcorn to salami.

The pupils also made a ‘Good Luck,’ video for Aberdeen when they reached the League Cup Final in November 2018. It was viewed over 7,500 times on twitter and over 4,000 times on Facebook. You can view the video at: https://www.facebook.com/AberdeenFCCommunityTrust/videos/559882927784196/

Aberdeen FC Community Trust and Scottish Disability Sport is looking to further develop a relationship with the school, which has a growing need for after-school provision, after the amazing feedback received from pupils and staff.

If you, or someone you know, lives with a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment and would like to get more involved in sport, please get in touch with Alison Shaw (Regional Manager for Scottish Disability Sport) on 07828 744 848 or alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com.

By Ross McNeil and Alison Shaw

Scottish Disability Sport are delighted to be working in partnership with Carnoustie Golf Links Ltd and Dundee Dragons to offer wheelchair golf at Carnoustie Golf Links.

Coaching sessions will take place on Tuesday evenings from 7pm – 8pm for 10 weeks from Tuesday 23rd April to Tuesday 25th June and are open to wheelchair users aged 10 and over.

Led by Keir McNicoll, P.G.A. Senior Assistant Professional, you will receive tuition on grip, swing and shot techniques whilst using the state of the art golf simulators at the Carnoustie Links Performance Centre and playing on the five-hole course ‘The Nestie’.

There is no cost for these sessions and golf equipment can be provided.

Anyone interested should contact Keir to register – kmcnicoll@carnoustiegolflinks.co.uk

Dundee City Disability Sport and Leisure & Culture Dundee are proud to organising the Tayside Senior Swimming Championships on Saturday 16th March at the Olympia in Dundee from 10am – 2pm.

This event is open to swimmers of all ages and is the qualifier for the SDS National Senior Swimming Championships, however only those eligible (over 16) will be selected for the national events:

• SDS National Senior Swimming Championships – Physical Disability & Sensory Impairment – 13 April 2019 Grangemouth Complex.
• SDS National Senior Swimming Championships – Learning Disability – 18 May 2019 Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Glasgow

Swimmers can enter up to 5 events as long as they only swim once in each stroke.

Please contact gordon.quinton@leisureandculturedundee.com for a Swimmer’s Registration Form. The closing date for entries is Friday 1st March.