Paralympic News

News on Paralympic Tickets Announced

We are excited to announce the London 2012 Paralympic Games ticket prices and daily competition schedule.

View or download ticket prices and daily competition schedule

There are two million tickets for the Paralympic Games and 75 per cent of these will go on sale to the public via an application process from 9 September 2011 until 30 September 2011.

Here are some key features of our pricing strategy to help you plan your Games experience and be ready when applications open:

A wide range of prices:
- More than 95% of tickets costing £50 or less
- More than 50% of tickets costing £10 or less
- Ceremony tickets from £20.12, with the most expensive ticket priced at £500

Tickets costing just £5 for young people aged 16 and under and seniors aged 60 and over in every session (except Ceremonies).

Day passes allowing general admission to see a range of sports taking place in either the Olympic Park or ExCeL on the same day.

Group Organiser tickets are available in sessions with a ticket limit of 20 or more. The Group Organiser ticket scheme will see Group Organisers who apply for 20 tickets or more per session receive an additional two tickets at no extra charge. Group Organisers applying for 30 tickets will receive 33 tickets, and so on up to Group Organisers who apply for 50 tickets receiving an additional five tickets at no extra charge.

We want London 2012 to be everyone’s Games so we have designed a wide range of ticket products and seating options for disabled people. For further information please read Ticket information for disabled people

BT Paralympic World Cup

23rd-28th May

Manchester

Do oyu want an opportunity to watch elite athletes compete in several sports as they prepare for London 2012?

The BT Paralympic World Cup offers you this opportunity.

You can watch:

Wheelchair Basketball
Swimming
Athletics
Boccia
Sitting Volleyball

Tickets cost from £3 so to book tickets visit:

www.btparalympicworldcup.com

You can also view the schedule and find out information about athletes etc.

So warm up your voices to cheer on GB and practice your support before London.

Torch Relay

Torch Relay Announced

LOCOG have today announced where the Evening Celebrations for the Olympic Torch Relay will take around the UK. All these towns and cities are listed via the link below and includes Stoke-on-Trent on 30 May 2012 as well as dates in Birmingham, Coventry and Worcester in the West Midlands. Really exciting news for our sub-region and further news on the full route will follow later in the year.

http://www.london2012.com/games/olympic-torch-relay/where-is-the-olympic-flame-going/locations-by-region-and-date.php

In addition, please circulate the following link as widely as you can in your area encouraging people to nominate Torchbearers. LOCOG are looking for 2,012 inspirational individual to carry the Torch and the nomination process is open until 29 June 2011, so not much time. Sponsors of the Torch Relay will also be announcing their nomination processes soon, so there will be further opportunities. There are loads of people in Staffordshire who deserve to be nominated, so please help make sure this happens.

http://www.london2012.com/games/olympic-torch-relay/carrying-the-olympic-flame/nominate-a-torchbearer.php

BPA unveils Tim Hollingsworth as new Chief Executive.

The British Paralympic Association has today announced the appointment of Tim Hollingsworth as its new CEO. Hollingsworth joins from UK Sport, where he is Chief Operating Officer, a post he has held since September 2010 having previously been Director of Policy and Communications there for five years.

Hollingsworth was appointed following a comprehensive and rigorous recruitment process after the previous CEO, Phil Lane, stepped down in February. Hollingsworth was chosen for his business acumen, leadership skills, in depth knowledge of the sporting landscape and vast experience in managing and influencing complex stakeholder relationships, gained through his previous roles at UK Sport, Granada Media and the Confederation of British Industry

He will join the BPA in July in time for a very busy period of both games preparation and international engagement for the organisation, with the large scale ParalympicsGB Simulation Camp being held at the University of Bath in August and the Chef de Mission seminar at the beginning of September.

Click here for full news story

ParalympicsGB

ParalympicsGB: Equality Statement

ParalympicsGB is working towards the Equality Standard for Sport, this is a framework to guide sports organisations towards achieving equality. It assists organisations in developing structures and processes, assessing performance and ensuring continuous improvement in equality.

ParalympicsGB is committed to achieving equality because it recognises the importance of equality for all. ParalympicsGB is eager to ensure that its sources of talented athletes and support staff is as broad as possible, this will assist ParalympicsGB to support and influence a dynamic performance pathway for British athletes towards future Paralympic Games. Which is why ParalympicsGB is committed to not discriminating on the grounds of age, gender, marital status, religious belief, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity and within the Paralympic Games context, nationality or disability.

ParalympicsGB is above all aware that the Paralympic Games is an elite sports competition for disabled people. Therefore, while upholding its position not to discriminate and aiming to achieve equality, ParalympicsGB will continue to use performance based criteria to select British athletes to compete at the Games. ParalympicsGB will also select the most appropriate support staff to create optimal conditions for medal success at each Games.

The GB Wheelchair Tennis Squad returned home from South Africa with two medals and a further two top ten finishes

Great Britain’s Women’s and Quad Wheelchair Tennis Team’s both finished in Bronze medal place after an enthralling ITF World Team Cup in Pretoria, South Africa, came to its conclusion at the weekend.

the Men’s team finishing seventh and the Junior team in fourth, GB has come away with a huge number of positives from the tournament, especially as a number of athletes were forced to withdraw through injury and a bout of sickness sweeping through the camp whilst in Pretoria.

TASS Athlete Louise Hunt (Bath Hub) teamed up with British Number 2 Jordanne Whiley, to beat tough competitors, Switzerland, to earn their third place spot in an extremely close encounter. Louise, who was recently selected by TASS Disability Sport Partner Deloitte as one of their Podium Potentials; was beaten by former World number 6 Karin Suter Erath in the first round of the tie. Jordanne stepped up to level the scores enforcing a deciding doubles rubber for the British pair against Suter-Erath and her doubles partner Simona Rusnak. The Swiss pair edged the opening set, but the young Brit’s took a commanding 5-0 lead in the second set to take it 6-1 and force a final set. Once again Louise and Jordanne were in dominant mood and stormed to a 5-2 lead to seal a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory in the doubles, leading to an overall victory in the tie and a well deserved Bronze medal.

“Louise and Jordanne performed superbly under extreme pressure in the deciding doubles. They fully deserve to end the event equalling their third seeding.” Geraint Richards, Great Britain Team Manager

TASS Athletes Dermot Bailey (Loughborough Hub) and Josh Steels (Exeter Hub) were part of the three man junior squad with 13-year-old Alfie Hewett. The youngsters had a tough test in the semi-final, facing reigning champions the Netherlands. This match went right to the wire; Dermot had won his singles match, but Alfie had lost his (the first all tournament), which lead to a winner takes all double’s rubber. Dermot and Alfie pushed the Dutch all the way, but unfortunately came off losing the game 7-6 (4), 6-3; meaning the Junior’s would take on second seeds Australia for the 3rd/4th play off.

Dermot again won his singles rubber, taking the tie into a doubles decider. With a change of partner (Josh coming in for Alfie), GB hoped they could finish higher in the competition than the two previous years. The Australian pairing of Henry de Cure and Keegan Oh-Chee were just too strong for the GB pair sealing the victory 6-4, 6-0, leaving Great Britain with a fourth place for the third successive year.

“There have been some fine performances this week under tough circumstances, with a number of the players being unwell. The team spirit and support for each other has been superb among the player and the support staff and we will return home happy.” Geraint Richards, Great Britain Team Manager

The GB squad is now back in the UK and will begin preparing for their next individual tournaments, with a number of ITF Futures and ITF grades 1-3 tournaments happening across May.

Shooting

More medals for British Shooters at IPC Spanish World Cup

The Disability Target Shooting Great Britain Team for the IPC Shooting World Cup in Spain have returned with one gold and two silver medals.

The event, which was held in Alicante, Spain, between May 2 and 8, offered quota qualification places to the 2012 Paralympic Games. There were 242 participants from 45 countries, which included all world shooting nations except Korea.

The full GB squad included Matthew Skelhon, Nathan Milgate, James Bevis, Deanna Coates, Karen Butler, Georgina Callingham, Adam Fontain, Ryan Cockbil, Richard Davies, Rob Mcleary, Richard Davies, Richard Lamb, Pamela Grainger, Jean Guild, Chris Summerscales, Benjamin Jesson.

They were supported by Head Coach Pasan Kulartane, Performance Rifle Coach- Robin Taylor, Rifle Coach - Simon Jarmon, Pistol Coach - Vladimir Filimonov, Physiotherapist Joanne Burgess, Psychologist – Jonathan Katz, Support Staff; Louise Davies, Andrew Glen Cockbill and Carl Edwards.

Click here for full story

London 2012 announces Brands Hatch as Paralympic Road Cycling venue
Brands Hatch, near Sevenoaks in Kent, will host the Paralympic Road Cycling events, incorporating the Road Race and Time Trial, from 5-8 September 2012.

The riders will race round a course that passes through the county of Kent and the district of Sevenoaks in Kent. The former F1 Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch will be the base for approximately half of the course including the start and finish. The remaining race will take place on local roads nearby.

This announcement marks the final venue to be confirmed for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and pays homage to Brands Hatch’s cycling routes, as it first developed in the 1920s as a grass track cycle racing venue.

The course was chosen after extensive consultation with the relevant local authorities and stakeholders to find a route that will provide an outstanding experience for both athletes and spectators. It will also allow LOCOG to use much of the existing venue infrastructure at Brands Hatch and is within approximately one hour’s travel time of the Athletes’ Village on the Olympic Park

Click here for full story

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