Daniel won a silver medal at the 2011 National Special Olympics Table Tennis competition. This was the first time he had played table tennis in a Special Olympics event and he was classified into Division 3. Daniel has only been playing table tennis for eighteen months so to compete against more experienced players and come away with a silver medal was a great achievement.
In an on-line competition organised by Clothes2order we received one third of the votes. We were given £500 to spend on sports clothing from the company. The athletes are proudly wearing their new sweatshirts and polo shirts. Many thanks to Clothes2order.
On 30 May 10 we hosted a 5-a-side football match against Skelmersdale Men-Aces. We lost 8-4 to a much larger squad. The Skem manager admitted that he'd had to keep his strongest players on the pitch for the whole match in order to win.
In March Mark competed in the Men's Singles and Doubles in Manchester. He won a gold medal in both - a great achievement for his first event in this sport.
The Southport branch of the Manchester City Supprters Club held their annual fundraising dinner when the proceeds were split between our Group and Derian House. We are looking forward to their Race Night later in the year.
Seven athletes from our Group represented the North West at this year’s Special Olympic Games in Leicester: five played 5-a-side football, one was in the 11-a-side football team and one played boccia. The Games began with a spectacular opening ceremony at the Walker Stadium, home of Leicester City FC, and included a parade of all the competitors. The following day classification matches began so that the competitors in each of the sports could be ‘banded’ into groups with other athletes of a similar ability level. In the team events this was based on the ability of the best player. Unfortunately this resulted in our 5-a-side team competing against other teams of higher ability. This, together with a number of injuries including a broken leg during classification, meant that they lost all their matches and came 6th in their group. Damian (pictured) won a gold medal with the 11-a-side team in the junior group. Mark played boccia and won a silver medal in the team competition. Boccia is similar to boules and is one of the events in the Paralympics, played by people with cerebral palsy. All the athletes really enjoyed the whole experience of attending this prestigious event and made new friends.