Paralympic News

 

GB Juniors win Silver at European Championships

GB Juniors played Sweden in the final of the European Junior Championships and in what was a very close game lost by only 2 points, 42 – 44.

 

In a game between the two best teams in the tournament, both teams going undefeated except the pool game between the two which GB won, it was always likely to a tactical game rather than an open game.

 

GB did very well to reach the final and it was a well matched game between the most evenly matched teams of the tournament. The shooting form that had served GB so well in all the previous games had deserted them.

 

GB shot the ball at 32%, their previous lowest percentage being 45% and Sweden at 35%, with Lindblom making 21 points.

 

Great Britain’s top scorers were Kyle Marsh and Lee Manning scored 12 points each.

 

Congratulations to both Jack Gibbs, in his first major tournament for GB and GB’s Captain Kyle Marsh who both made the All Star 5 team.

 

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Blake Secures 4th at World Championships

Three times Paralympian, Natalie Blake, has secured a fourth place finish at the World Championships in Powerlifting.

Blake went into the IPC Powerlifting World Championships ranked 2nd on the IPC World Rankings, however when the start list was released it showed that a number of athletes had either moved from other weight categories or had qualified after the ranking lists had been published, on her current performances Natalie was now ranked 5th.

 

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Newson takes Junior IPC Powerlifting World Title in style

At her first IPC Powerlifting World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Zoe Newson (Suffolk Spartans), found herself the youngest lifter competing, but a fantastic performance secured her a Junior World title.

Undaunted by her young age, Zoe looked confident with her opening lift of 77.50kg in the 40kg category, which put her into 5th place at the end of the first round in the Senior World Championships and 1st in the Juniors. 

She then put a further 5kg on the bar, going up to 82.5kg and again looked good with all three referees giving it as a good lift.  With the lifter from Vietnam, Thai Hong Nguyen missing at 85kg, Zoe went into 4th overall.   

Going into the 3rd round Zoe was already confirmed as Junior World Champion and was looking to equal her Junior European Record with a lift of 85kg, unfortunately she was given a no lift, if she had lifted it she would have been on an equal total with Tiecan Fu (CHN) in third place however Fu would still have taken Bronze in the Senior Championships as she had the lighter body weight.   

Zoe stated that 'I am really happy to have won Gold today and be crowned the World Junior Champion, its been a great experience, and will help me for the Commonwealth Games in October'. 

 

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British Judo search for female Paralympic potential

The British Judo Association has today launched a ‘Paralympic Potential’ talent search, in association with UK Sport, ParalympicsGB and the English Institute of Sport, to find more female visually impaired judoka to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games.

With just over two years to go to the Paralympic Games, this will be the final push to find more women within the sport of judo that have the potential to progress and compete in London 2012.

 

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Shelly Woods drops out of Dehli 

Wheelchair athlete Shelly Woods has become the latest track and field athlete to withdraw from the Commonwealth Games.

Paralympic silver medalist Woods has made the decision not to compete at the four-yearly event taking place in Delhi this October, instead opting to focus her attention on January's International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Championships.

Woods said that although the decision was a difficult one, it was "a question of prioritising".

She said: "I have done all the qualifying times for the World Championships and I would rather be training for them because they are more important.

"I would love to go to the Commonwealth Games but they come at the wrong time for my schedule.

 

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British wheelchair tennis number one Lucy Shuker completed a notable double with victory in the women's singles and doubles at the Belgian Open.

 

Shuker's 6-1 6-4 win over home favourite and world number eight Annick Sevenans in the singles decider was the biggest success of her career.

 

The Taunton-based player, who started the week ranked 12th in the world, will return to the world's top 10.

 

She also teamed up with Sharon Walraven to win the doubles.

 

They came from a set down to beat Sevenans and Aniek van Koot in a championship tie-break 6-7(5-7) 6-2 11-9.

 

In the women's singles, Shuker beat three players ranked above her in her four matches, defeating current world number four van Koot for the second time in six weeks in the quarter-finals.

 

She then beat world number 11 Katharina Kruger of Germany 6-2 7-5 in the semi-finals before the win over Sevenans.

 

"I'm on cloud nine at the moment," said the Briton. "I'm delighted to have beaten three top players and won my first ITF 1 Series title and to have added the doubles title as well make it all even more special."

 

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