National News

Another chance to snap up Paralympic tickets

More Paralympics tickets will be sold on a first-come first-served basis at 13:00 on 2 December.

 

Track cycling and wheelchair rugby have sold out, but tickets are available for athletics, wheelchair basketball, swimming and equestrian events.

 

Sales payments will be taken immediately.

 

Some 800,000 Paralympics tickets were allocated to 100,000 people through September's initial public application phase.

 

Tickets are available on each day of the Paralympics, which run from 29 August to 9 September.

 

They can be bought online or over the phone on 0844 847 2012. Would-be spectators will have to use a Visa card for any purchase.

 

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Virgin London Wheelchair Marathon Racer Application Opens

 

To apply for a place in the 2012 Virgin London Wheelchair Marathon you need to:

• Be 18 or over on the day of the race.
• Must have a valid Marathon time from the past two years of 3 hours or under (you will need to produce documentation to this effect).
• Have an IPC classification.

Race conditions

• Must use accredited racing wheelchair under IPC rules.
• No hand crank cycles or any chair with any mechanical attachment or gears will be allowed in the race. The chair must be self propelled by the user.
• Anyone who reaches mile 11 in 1 hour and 15 minutes will be pulled from the race.

 

Your entry
Once you’ve completed this online entry form you’ll see a ‘Thank you’ page - this means your entry has gone through. We’ll also send you a confirmation email. Please don’t apply more than once as this could result in your entry being cancelled. The online entry system will close at 5pm on 27th February 2012.

 

Important information
Please note, applying for the 2012 Virgin London Wheelchair Marathon doesn’t mean you’ll definitely get a place. We’ll let you know within a few weeks whether you’ve secured a place or not.

 

If you’ve got any questions about your entry in the meantime, please email us at michellew@london-marathon.co.uk. Also, if you apply for a place but then find you’re unable to compete in the 2012 race, please let us know as soon as you can.

 

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Special Olympics GB & Mencap Sport launch English Learning Disability Sports Alliance

The English Learning Disability Sports Alliance will work across the sport sector, to promote inclusive provision of disability sport. The Alliance will focus on ensuring that people with a learning disability have the best possible opportunity and choice to participate in sport, both recreationally and competitively, and to raise awareness of learning disability sport.

 

Mencap Sport and Special Olympics GB will remain as two separate organisations, but will work more closely together to share skills, resources, and promote a strong, united voice for people with a learning disability in sport.

 

The lack of competitive opportunities following the exclusion of elite athletes with a learning disability from Paralympic sport between 2000 – 2009, has undermined provision at every level, and individuals with disabilities are currently less likely to participate regularly in sport than non-disabled people and are more likely to suffer from conditions relating to physical inactivity. The English Learning Disability Sports Alliance will now play a key role in ensuring that learning disability sport at every level receives the attention it deserves, and will aim to build on the excitement of the Olympics and increase the number of people with a learning disability taking part in sport.

 

Click here for full story

 

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British Rowing produce Adaptive List

British Rowing have produced a useful list of the clubs around the Country that offer adaptive rowing.

 

Click here to download list

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Battle Back Centre at Lilleshall to support wounded troops

Sport will be a key part of the recovery activities offered to wounded, injured and sick Service personnel at the new Battle Back Centre that will open fully at Sport England’s Lilleshall National Sports Centre next year. Pilot courses at the Centre are currently underway.  

 

Hundreds of troops will benefit every year from spending time at the new centre which is being created thanks to a partnership between The Royal British Legion, the Ministry of Defence and Sport England.

 

The centre will give those injured in the line of duty the confidence and self-esteem to get back into civilian life or return to active duty. Adaptive sport and adventurous training activities under the direction of world-class coaches, principally from the Carnegie Faculty at Leeds Metropolitan University, will be offered at Lilleshall’s state-of-the-art sporting facilities, where many of the country’s top athletes train.

 

The MoD will provide staff for the centre, while the running of the centre will be funded by The Royal British Legion, which is celebrating its 90th Anniversary in 2011.

 

Click here for full story

 

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BT’s disability survey results show two thirds of people avoid disabled people

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the 3,000 people canvassed for BT’s disability survey have admitted they avoid disabled people because they don’t know how to act around them, according to new research sponsored by BT.

 

The survey was conducted to coincide with BT’s ‘Ready, Willing and Disabled’ event at its headquarters in London on December 1, 2011.

 

The research, commissioned to highlight the issues faced by disabled people in the workplace, also showed that, attitudes appear to have hardened during the recession. A third of those questioned demonstrated hardened negative attitudes towards disabled people. Reasons cited for this ranged from disabled people being seen as a burden on society (38%), ill feeling around the perceived extra support given to disabled people (28%), and the personal worries and sensitivities which rise to the fore during a recession (79%).

 

Yet in seemingly contradictory findings, 85% of people feel that their employers could do more to create greater employment and career progression for disabled people, but only 42% think employers should make more reasonable adjustments for disabled staff.

 

Caroline Waters, BT’s Director of People and Policy  said, “It’s very sad that, in the 21st Century, with the London 2012 Paralympic Games less than a year away, so many people still fail to see the potential behind the disability.”

 

“In order to give some people a fair chance, you sometimes need to treat them differently”, she continues. “Until we understand that fair doesn’t always mean the same, our society will unnecessarily compound any limiting effects of disability and continue to waste the potential of thousands of our fellow citizens. It is time to accept that our attitudes can be, and often are, more damaging than the disability itself.”

 

Only 26% of people class facial disfigurement as an impairment and more than a third (34%) don’t consider hearing loss to be an impairment.

 

James Partridge, Founder & Chief Executive of Changing Faces, a charity which supports and represents people with facial, hand or body disfigurement, said “I understand that it’s instinctively difficult not to look at someone who has a disability. But for the person themselves, that looking, which can happen every day whenever they are in a public place or at work, can feel like staring and be very intrusive and undermining.”     

 

Click here for full story   

 

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