Tag: Championships

16/11/2024

Day 1 Review: UK Boccia Championships 2024

The Scots put on a good show on the opening day of the UK Boccia Championships

Day one of the UK Boccia Championships got off to a great start, with the Scottish contingency racking up several wins in the pool stages.

Here’s an overview of how the seven Scots got on –

BC2

Kayleigh Brown 1 – 3 v Luke Walsh, 6 – 5 v Jason Rolph, 6 – 1 v Tomas Martin.

Alex Medley 2 – 7 James Clowes, 11 – 1 v Sian Jones, 0 – 11 v Reshad Seraj

BC3

Patrick Wilson 8 – 4 v Mark Roderick, 3 –3 v Lee Croker (tiebreak).

BC4

Stephen McGuire 17 – 0 v Harrison Smith, 19 – 0 Lewis Crawford, 7 – 2 v Tyler McLelland.

Tyler McLelland 8 – 2 Lewis Crawford,10 – 1 v Harrison Smith.

Paul McIntyre 2 – 4 Louis Saunders, 10 – 0 Scott McIntyre.

Scott McIntyre 0 – 4 v Louis Saunders.

The competition will resume on Sunday 17th November, with play-off games followed by semifinals, finals A and B.

You can follow the action live on the SDS website via the live results page and livestream (available Sunday morning), as well as seeing behind-the-scenes content posted across the SDS social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and X).

Useful documents –

UK Boccia Championships 2024 Competition Guide

Saturday 16th November 2024 schedule.

Sunday 17th November 2024 schedule.

To view the Live Scoring document click here.

15/11/2024

Scotland Host UK Boccia Championships at Prestigious Inverclyde Venue

Scotland welcomes the best of British boccia for the UK Championships this weekend (16-17 November), at sportscotland’s national training centre in Inverclyde.

For Paralympic gold medallist, Stephen McGuire (BC4, Hamilton), it is the first time competing since his golden moment at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games in the summer. The world number one will be looking to continue his winning ways on home soil.

“The UK Championships is the showcase event in our domestic calendar. I’m super excited to be competing, especially in Scotland”, said Stephen.

He continued to say: “It’s always great to see the development of athletes coming through to challenge us athletes on the World Class Programme. Last year’s UK Championships saw all Talent Transition Squad athletes reach the podium. This demonstrates excellent depth within the UK and we will all need to perform well to reach the podium once again.”

Fellow Paralympians Kayleigh Brown (nee Haggo, BC2, Ayrshire) and Patrick Wilson (BC3, Lothian) will also be in action on the courts, joined by Scots Tyler McLelland (BC4, Fife), Alex Medley (BC2, Perth and Kinross) and brothers Scott and Paul McIntyre (BC4, Forth Valley).

The Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Maree Todd MSP, visited Inverclyde on Friday (15th) to offer her best wishes to Scottish Disability Sport (SDS) ahead of competition starting on Saturday morning, as well as fitting in a quick game of boccia with Stephen.

Stephen McGuire and Maree Todd playing a boccia game at Inverclyde — Maree Todd MSP enjoying a game of boccia with Paralympian Stephen McGuire

The Minister expressed her great admiration for the sport and highlighted the impact that boccia can have in communities across Scotland.

“Boccia is the most amazing sport. It’s really inclusive and accessible”, said Ms Todd.

“Boccia provides an opportunity for everyone. Everyone can join in with boccia, that’s part of the beauty. But for some of our people who have complex disabilities, there are real challenges getting involved in physical activities. So it [boccia] is a competitive sport that is open to everyone.”

The Minister also praised Inverclyde as being a premier accessible venue in the UK, that prides itself being the first UK residential sports centre of its kind – designed for inclusivity.

“It’s absolutely vital. Without accessible venues these competitions can’t happen. There’s no hassle in this venue and it is really welcoming to absolutely everyone who wants to play sport. And it shows with a little bit of thought and a little bit of planning, a little bit of work with the community, what can be achieved and I want more of that all over Scotland. All over the UK, so that all of our athletes can have the chance to compete”, said Maree Todd MSP.

Kayleigh Brown – who recently just got married to sports assistant Kevin – also returns to the court following her Paralympic debut in Paris:

“It’s been really busy since Paris – we got married, we’ve been on honeymoon and we have moved house – so I haven’t been able to train much but I’m really looking forward to this weekend. It’s always a great competition which brings the four nations together and gives me the opportunity to compete for Scotland. It’s brilliant to see a high number of entries and I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

Whilst the UK Championships is the first event of the 2028 Paralympic cycle, with some athletes’ sights set on LA 2028, the championships provides a fantastic opportunity for Scotland to showcase the best of boccia.

You can follow the action live on the SDS website via the live results page and livestream (link available soon), as well as seeing behind-the-scenes content posted across the SDS social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram and X).

18/06/2024

Newcomers and Squad Members Unite at Scottish Boccia Event

The National Scottish Boccia Closed Championships took place at The Peak in Stirling on Saturday 15th of July, with 25 athletes competing for the title of Scottish Champion.

A development squad was also present on the day, with 12 athletes joining to make it the biggest draw to date.

The development draw provided potential classifiable athletes the opportunity to compete and learn more about higher level competition; watching some of Scotland’s finest boccia players in action- proving to be a great experience for the development squad with plenty of learnings to takeaway.

Within the development draw there were two categories: a mixed BC1,2 & 4 category with 5 athletes and a BC3 development draw with 3 athletes and their ramp operators. For some of the athletes, it was their first time competing at a National competition, whilst for others, it was their first ever boccia competition.

“It has been a fantastic event with many close games,” said Jonathan Kennedy, SDS’s Boccia Development Officer.

“What is really great to see is the amount of players in the development draw coming to this event. I spoke to one who said that this is their first ever event and quite a few of the other players have spoken to the Scottish squad athletes.

“It’s great to see the Scottish squad players taking the time to talk and share their knowledge with the development players all in the same place,” said Jonathan.

There were some fantastic games played throughout the entire day. Podium placers per each category are listed here:

BC2:

Gold – Alex Medley
Silver – Kayleigh Haggo
Bronze – Lewis McConnell

BC3:

Gold – Patric Wilson & Meredith Greenwood
Silver – Ross MacNeil & Stewart MacNeil

BC4:

Gold – Stephen McGuire
Silver – Tyler McLelland
Bronze – Fiona Muirhead

Development Draw:

Gold – James O’Brien
Silver – Murrin Widley
Bronze – Layla McCloskey

BC3 Development Draw:

Gold – Zac Cameron & Kevin Davidson
Silver – Ellie MacLaren & Lisa MacLaren
Bronze – Caoimhe Potter & Katie MacMillan

Many thanks to all the officials who helped the event run smoothly and for providing support to the development athletes; ensuring that they understood the rules and call room procedures. Thank you also to Barclays volunteers who helped support the officials. A final thank you goes to Motability and their sponsorship of this event.

03/03/2023

Highest Turnout for Mary Duncan Gala

Grampian swimming events appear to have fully recovered post-covid with a record level of entries for the annual Mary Duncan Swimming Gala.

We were delighted to be back at the gala’s home pool – Fraserburgh Community & Sports Centre – where 62 swimmers gave it their all across 53 events.

The event welcomes swimmers of all ages and all disability types from across Grampian and is a qualifying event for the Scottish Disability Sport National Senior Swimming Championships. It was fantastic to see a growing number of clubs from across the region entering their swimmers – in particular, the mainstream clubs which have welcomed swimmers with disabilities into their main squads.

We were delighted to be joined by Michelle Lamont, the daughter of the late Mary Duncan, who the gala has been named in honour of, to present medals to our winning swimmers.

The selection process for the National Championships, where we expect a strong Grampian representation.

Huge thanks goes to Marie Cheyne for arranging the programme and running events on the day, Pauline Stirling for starting the races, and for all the parents, carers, coaches and teachers who got stuck in to help with timekeeping, announcing, marshaling and supporting their swimmers.

If you, or anyone you know, lives with a physical, sensory or learning disability in Grampian or Shetland & is interested in getting involved in sport, please get in touch with Alison on alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com or 07828 744 848.