With things opening up this week it’s another step towards some sort of normality and we can all now go inside out of the rain for that beer! Not sure what it has been like where you live but here in Cornwall we have yet to experience the usual warmth of May and the cold, topped by heavy showers, has not made a beer outside my local particularly attractive! I do know that lots of you are out and about because I have been pleased to sign off many risk assessments for teams wanting to return to play – seventeen clubs in all are now either back or about to have their first session and 7 of these have already moved up the step progression ladder towards the full game which is great news and sets things up nicely for…
The Big Rugby Return!
We are excited to announce a summer festival of wheelchair rugby through our Big Rugby Return. We will be offering lots of support to clubs and members to help you restart and get back playing. As clubs start to get back, our regional officers will be supporting each club to complete their return to play requirements and any other areas they may need help with. We will also be offering a wide range of virtual courses and webinars on coaching and officiating and new webinars on WR5s rules, understanding classification (Paralympic and WR5s) and game preparation aimed at teams preparing to go back to competition later this year.
And… we have an exciting programme of free social playing festivals to get people back onto court. There will be ten social festivals around the country with a mix of formats (Paralympic and WR5s) and the opportunity to enter as an individual or as a team. We will also be hosting a junior festival and in September there will be the Rugby Social Weekend for Paralympic teams. Look out for more information on the website and social media soon.
GB Team
There are just 98 days to go now before the opening ceremony for the Tokyo games and the GB squad has just completed the final training session before team selection. No spectators, no families, restricted movement – yes It’s going to be a very different Games and experience this time but you can be sure that the competition will be no less fierce and we believe that this is our time to break into the medals. Ahead of that we have our first competition against another nation for over 18 months when France and Denmark join us in June for the King Power Quad Nations. Like the Tokyo Games this is going to be very different from the usual event in that there will be no spectators and teams will not be able to socialise in the normal way. But it is a fantastic opportunity for all three teams to come together to train and play one another ahead of Tokyo and everyone is looking forward to getting on court against real opposition. Since the publication of the latest COVID-19 safety measures and practices to be put in place for the Paralympics we have changed our final preparation phase. It is with a heavy heart that we have decided not to return to Kitakyushu for our pre-Games preparation camp. The understandable safety measures in place in Japan mean that we would not have achieved the advantages which first led us to establishing the city as our home base and the necessary additional domestic return flight between Tokyo and Kitakyushu presents an unnecessary additional risk. As a result we will now complete our final preparation at our home training base at Lilleshall. We are very disappointed not to be returning to Kitakyushu and to the wonderful friends and partners we have made there. We are enormously grateful for the support the city has given us and we hope that we might be able to return in the future to play the Japan team.
Although Tokyo is our main focus, we are also preparing for Paris which of course because of the delayed Tokyo Games, is only 3 years away. There will be an urgency to get the new performance team in place, and the new squad selected after we get back from Tokyo as the international programme resumes very quickly. It is a demanding one, starting in February when we will defend our European title in Paris. This tournament is also important because it is a qualifying event for the World Championship which will be held in Denmark in October next year. I am delighted to have secured Barry Mason as our head of performance and you can read about his impressive background in the recent news announcement. Barry was selected from an incredibly strong field of candidates and we are confident he will help us to achieve our medal ambitions. In addition to being alongside the head coach to bring the best out of the performance staff and the athletes, he will work with individuals selected for the talent pathway as we are committed to investing much more time and attention to those of you who in the future will wear the GB vest.
Finally, congratulations to Leicester City the FA Cup champions. We have a very close bond with the club, and with King Power who have supported our Quad Nations where teams play for the Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha trophy in memory of the club’s owner who was killed in a tragic helicopter crash. Ahead of Tokyo, the team has shown us the way with their belief and passion that they can defeat the best in the league. We go into our final preparation phase believing the same!
David Pond, Chief Executive
