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The Scottish Disability Sport/Lothian Disability Badminton Club Championships were held at Napier University on Saturday 28th January. Disability Sport Fife (DSF) had nine members on the start list this year, a considerable increase on previous tournaments..

DSF plans to target the championships each year and build on the 2017 entry. DSF weekly sessions at the Michael Woods Sports and Leisure Centre and the Cowdenbeath Leisure centre led by Alex Bird, Julie Hogg and Euan Bell are flourishing and growing in numbers on a weekly basis.

Prior to the start of the event players with a learning disability are classified into appropriate sections and all six Fife entrants had to go through this process. Player results were excellent. In singles Lloyd Simpson (Methil) defeated Robert Anderson (Glenrothes) to take the Division 2 title and his Fife team mate Briony Clark (Kinglassie) repeated the performance with a win in the equivalent women’s division. Two singles titles in their first tournament was a great achievement.

In mixed doubles Steven Anderson (Glenrothes) teamed up with Jazmine McNeill (Rosyth) to win the Division 2 title and Jazmine partnered Rebecca O’Callaghan (Kirkcaldy) to win the women’s doubles. Steven and Lloyd were assigned a place in Division 1 men’s doubles but on this occasion they found the competition too tough.

Mary Wilson, the Fife Women’s Champion from Edinburgh, is a member of DSF. Mary partnered Colin Leslie to the combined XD title. Skye and Finlay Davidson from Inverkeithing competed in singles, mixed double and doubles.

All players now look forward to the Fife Championships organised by Disability Sport Fife and scheduled to take place at the Kirkcaldy Leisure Centre on Wednesday 15th March. The Championships are supported by Fife Council and the Fife Sports and Leisure Trust and are part of the Annual Disability Sport Fife Sports Festival.

Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife

The third and final event of the West of Scotland Schools Cross Country Series took place on Thursday 19^th January at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow.  The Inspiring Sport Project, through the Celtic FC Foundation, once again supported the event.

259 pupils from 24 schools ran over the course set out on a 1km loop, in the 1km, 2km and 3km races.

This being the last race of the series, the tension was high with medal places at stake.  Although a dry, but cold day, the course in places was extremely muddy and a number of competitors lost a shoe on the final stretch into the finish which proved costly for some.  All in all though, there were some fantastic performances and some tight finishes, and credit goes to all the competitors.

Thanks to all the schools who attended, and made it such a successful event.  The numbers are increasing every year and it is fantastic to see so many pupils in Primary and Secondary schools putting so much effort into completing the course and being active.

Every pupil who completed all three races received a series medal, and the pupils with the most points over the series, received individual medals for their events.

Thanks to the West of Scotland Schools Committee, Shona Malcolm and officials (Scottish Athletics), James Hemmingsley (Glasgow Active Schools), Gordon McCormack (Glasgow Disability Sport) and pupils from Abercorn school, for their input in organising and running the event.

A full set of results can be seen here.

Grampian Disability Sport invite you to join us at Garioch Sports Centre, Burghmuir Drive Inverurie, AB51 4GY on the 5th March @ 2pm.

This event will be the official launch of the Get Out, Get Active (GOGA) Project including adapted cycling, walking and triathlon for people with disabilities.

At the launch event there will be the opportunity to try adapted cycling for all abilities. Garioch Sports Centre will become the first adapted cycling hub to be set up as part of the project and the first ever hub in Aberdeenshire. So come along and tell us what you would like to see at the hub.

Places will be limited for the adapted cycling session so please book your place now by emailing: gemma.lewis@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or call 01467 534730.

The Mercat Gait Centre in East Lothian was the venue for the Scottish Disability Sport / Scottish Swimming National Short Course Performance Swim Championships on Sunday 22^nd January 2017. 42 of Scotland’s leading swimmers with a physical, sensory or learning disability from all areas of the country took part including 7 from Fife. Following the retirement of Craig Rodgie, Lucy Walkup, Stefan Hoggan and Craig Smith, Disability Sport Fife is trying to grow its performance swimming squad and at the moment it is heading in the right direction.

The Performance Championships are a strong partnership event between Scottish Disability Sport and Scottish Swimming and were introduced to support regional development and create an appropriate competition for swimmers with performance potential. The Championships incorporate the IPC Multi-Classification system and for some swimmers this was their first opportunity to compete under the British Swimming Points Scoring System. Race positions are determined by points scored against the world record for each individual swimmer’s class.

The Fife squad included Cara Smyth, Kirsty Brunton, Cameron Hemphill and Cerys Venters Scott from INCAS. Oliver Carter From Carnegie SC, Steven McCormick from FINS and Mary Wilson from Edinburgh completed the line up and within the group there were many personal best times.

Cara Smyth competed in 100m backstroke (1.28.69), 400m freestyle (5.23.45), 100m breast (1.42.25), and 200m IM (3.10.18) winning gold for freestyle and bronze for backstroke. Cara’s INCAS team mate Cerys Venters Scott is going through classification at the moment and competed as a guest. Cerys recorded excellent times for 100m Back, 50m freestyle, 200m IM and 100m freestyle.

Oliver Carter competed in 100m backstroke  (1.13.15),100m butterfly (1.10.75), 100m breast (1.19.83) and 100m free (59.60). The silver medal swim in 100m butterfly was his best swim of the day and he will be pleased with another sub 60 100m freestyle.

The other standout performances by Fife swimmers were Steven McCormick 4^th 400m freestyle (5.55.67) and 4^th 50m freestyle (36.77. Mary Wilson picked up silver for 400m freestyle (8.05.46) and 6^th place in 100m freestyle (1.42.04). Kirsty Brunton’s best performance was 5^th in 400m freestyle (9.01.30) and newcomer Cameron Hemphill’s best swim was 8^th place in 100m breaststroke in (2.32.52.

Well done Team Fife and to the coaches at INCAS, FINS and Carnegie SC who are responsible for their training and preparation.

Richard Brickley MBE
President, Disability Sport Fife