National News

BT Paralympic World Cup 2011

Tickets on Sale!

Tickets for the BT Paralympic World Cup 2011 have gone on general sale today. If you haven't already bought your tickets through the exclusive early bird offer you can now buy general sale tickets and encourage your friends to do the same.

 

This year there are three exciting sports including Wheelchair Basketball, Athletics and Swimming as well as two International matches in Boccia and Sitting Volleyball.

 

Check out this year's schedule here to help you decide which action packed events you would like to attend in 2011.

 

Visit the ticket page here to find out how to get this year's BT PWC tickets.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

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Click here to download poster

Click here to download entry form

 

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New Partnership Enables Consumers to Access More Sports Information ‘On the Move’

 

 

 

We still have places left for this year's Great North Swim. This fantastic event takes place in Lake Windermere against the stunning backdrop of the Lake District National Park. This event was recently voted the world's fifth best open water swim, so you really couldn't ask for a better place to take a dip! Swimmers of all abilities will join thousands of others for this mile long open water swim, so you don't have to have fins to take part!   

  

We are looking for people to join our CP Sport swim team on Sat 18 and Sun 19 June and raise sponsorship for CP Sport. Places cost £30 each and we are asking our swimmers to aim to raise £150 in sponsorship. If you are interested or would like to find out more about the event, please call us on 0115 925 2620 or drop us a line at fundraising@cpsport.org. For more information about the swim- click here!  

 

If this challenge isn't for you, please help us to spread the word and ask any colleagues, neighbours or friends who might be interested in making a splash for CP Sport.

 

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Dermot Dolan, CP Sport's Football Officer,  is running a  football development day for ambulant players with cerebral palsy (cp) on the 11 June at the London Soccerdome  in Greenwich London. These days are open to boys and girls aged 7 and above.  The aim of this day is to get young people together to enjoy the game of football in a safe environment, where they can have fun, develop their football skills and hopefully make new friends along the way.  

   

The development day will be followed by a regional festival at the London Soccerdome on 18 September to give people a chance to experience playing a game of cp football against other teams.  Please complete a registration form for one of our events and make sure you send it in before the deadline.

 

If you're a parent, teacher or coach looking to start your own ambulant cerebral palsy football team this could be just the start you need.  It doesn't matter how good you are at the game, if you have cerebral palsy, are ambulant and want to play cp football come along to one of of our football events.

 

For more information please visit our football pages or contact Dermot Dolan by email or call 07954 655 539.

 

Don't forget to follow CPSportFootball on twitter!

 

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Tennis showcased at inaugural Premier League Down's Syndrome Football Festival

The inaugural Premier League Down’s Syndrome Football Festival last week featured tennis, thanks to the success of a partnership between the Fulham FC Foundation, the Down’s Syndrome Association and the Tennis Foundation.  

The Festival, held at Fulham’s Motspur Park, was a chance for Down’s Syndrome football teams from across England to come together to show off their skills in the professional surroundings of Fulham FC’s training ground.

The Down's Syndrome Association (DSA) invited nine teams, 84 players and their families to enjoy a special day that marked the start of this year's annual Down's Syndrome awareness events, coming just a day before World Down's Syndrome Day on Monday 21st March.

Tennis Foundation (TF) coach David Knipe was asked to lead a number of tennis sessions at the Festival for the younger age groups to introduce them to the sport and believes the day was a huge success.  

"It was great seeing the children trying tennis as most of them had never played before. After each session the children had to rotate and move on to the next activity, but not many of them wanted to put the rackets down,” he said.  

"Over the break time, we even had some of the kids coming over with parents and helpers to hit a few balls around. Although the day was mainly aimed at a football, it was great to give the children a taster of tennis and they seemed to really enjoy it.”
 
The TF has been working in partnership with the DSA and the Fulham Football Club Foundation to set up regular Down’s syndrome tennis sessions since January 2010.  

The Community Down’s Syndrome Tennis Project, the first of its kind nationally, was started following the success of the Fulham FC Foundation’s DSActive Down’s syndrome football team and has been run from the Lawn Tennis Association’s National Tennis Centre and Tiffin School in South West London.  

Former Sunderland, Everton and Wigan Athletic star Kevin Kilbane, whose seven-year old daughter has Down's syndrome, was also at the Festival in his role as patron for the Down's Syndome Association and hailed the day a great success.

"It's been a great event. There are so many teams involved now, which has been the key to the event being the success it is. It's wonderful to see,” said Kilbane.

"I became involved with the Down's Syndrome Association seven years ago. My daughter has Down's syndrome and I contacted them just for support at first, to try and see what the future had in store. Since then the DSA asked me to do a few events for them and to become a patron of the charity.”

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Team 2012 athletes focus on training rather than Olympic and Paralympic milestones

Olympic and Paralympic fever swept the nation this month as London 2012 tickets went on sale and 500 days to go until the Olympic Games was celebrated with the launch of a countdown clock in Trafalgar Square.

Yet for the majority of Team 2012 athletes, qualification for their Olympic and Paralympic events won’t commence until early 2012.

For four time Olympic rowing gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent, 500 days to go should not give the athletes too many sleepless nights. 

“Of course it would be unnatural for the athletes to not have one eye on what could potentially be their greatest sporting moment,” said Matthew.

“But 500 days to go is a long time, it allows athletes to assess anything they aren’t happy with and turn things around. For me it wasn’t until one year to go when alarm bells started ringing.”

Team 2012 athlete and Beijing canoeing gold medallist Tim Brabants, remains focused on his training until a place at Dorney Lake – the Olympic sprint canoeing venue – is confirmed.

Brabants said, “It is interesting to see all of the hype in the media and on television but I can’t get carried away. My spot isn’t confirmed, and until it is, all my attention is centred on training. I think having the experience of competing at past Olympics definitely stops my emotions from taking over.”

Britain’s top long jumper Chris Tomlinson is taking each day as it comes. He said, “From a selfish point of view I ignore the London talk. 500 days to go is exciting but not significant in my training plans.”

“I remember when it was 500 days to go to Beijing,” said Ricky Balshaw, a silver medallist from Beijing in the Paralympic Dressage event.

“The milestones come around so fast that if I think about them too much I panic at the time left before the Games; concentrating on my training schedule and monitoring performance is a much better use of time.”

Even for sailor Katrina Hughes and table tennis player Kelly Sibley, who are both aiming to compete in their first ever Olympics, it is the hours of training that occupies the majority of their thoughts.

“To be honest until I went on the Team 2012 website the other day I had no idea how many days to go it was,” said Katrina, who has recently moved from her home in Essex to be based at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. “It is a big deal but I try not to look past the end of my week, let alone 500 days - so much can happen in that time.”

Kelly was quick to agree with her Team 2012 colleague. She said, “I train so hard that days often merge into one; I do take note of the milestones to remind me why I’m putting these thousands of training hours in, but acknowledgment is as far as it goes.”

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How inclusive is your club?
The England Athletics Disability Action Plan launched in December 2010 outlines a goal to support clubs to actively recruit and appropriately integrate athletes with different needs and impairments, and provide quality athletics opportunities – without the obligation for every club to cater for all impairment groups and events.
In order to support clubs with this goal England Athletics has recently launched an Inclusive Club Health Check document.

This Inclusive Club Health Check is not a pass or fail document, but a quick and simple check list which will enable clubs to identify and prioritise issues and areas where support is needed or action is required.

For more information about the Inclusive Club Health Check please contact your local Club and Coach Support Officer and/or your local Disability Athletics Support Officer.

 

Disability Athletics Support Officers:
Shelley Holroyd (North) sholroyd@englandathletics.org    07912 070625
Job King (Midlands & South West) jking@englandathletics.org    07841 504311
Liz Purbrick (South) lpurbrick@englandathletics.org    07850 514936

 

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Sainsbury’s launch 1 Million Kids Challenge 

Sainsbury's yesterday launched their 1 Million Kids Challenge, aimed at getting one million children from around the UK involved in the Paralympics by giving them the opportunity to try out a paralympic sport.

As part of their commitment to promote a healthy, fitter lifestyle across all ages and abilities, Sainsbury's will also be supplying free sports equipment to schools.

All of the schools participating in the Challenge will be eligible for additional rewards and benefits, such as access to London 2012 Ticketshare tickets and visits from athletes by joining the Get Set network.

Speaking from the launch at Lee Valley Athletics Centre, Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport said: "Today's exciting event is a fantastic example of how Paralympic sports can be incorporated into every UK school and the Sainsbury's 1 Million Kids Challenge is the perfect platform to help children realise their sports potential."

 

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Support beyond 2012

Sainsbury's have announced its Paralympic Legacy Fund, a joint initiative with the British Paralympic Association (BPA) which will support Paralympic athletes at the 2012 Games and beyond and will be partly funded through profits from a specially designed Paralympic Games shopping bag.

 

In addition to the 1 Million Kids Challenge, anyone who is interested in trying out a Paralympic sport can contact Parasport, an organisation established to make it easier for the public to learn about and participate in these sports in their local communities.

 

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Adaptive Classification Workshop