The Home Straight

With just 9 days to go before the opening ceremony we are now on the home straight to London. Individual and team preparations continue and the focus now starts to turn towards entry into the village and the final training sessions in London. You will have seen that the media build up has started and we are getting many, many calls on a daily basis which our partners Onshore are handling very effectively. Some of you may have seen Ross Morrison front up the National Lottery on Saturday which was an excellent piece - well done to him and we can expect a great deal more over the coming days and weeks. Certainly you should now be following C4 whose Paralympic coverage enters the next stage ...
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THANKS FOR THE WARM UP

As I write this there are just 19 days to go before the opening ceremony of our games and C4 has already started its trailer campaign with the clever 'Thanks for the Warm Up' posters which are starting to appear on billboards across the country. If the Olympic experience is anything to go by then we are in for something even more special than we could have imagined and I am sure the nation is ready to build on the momentum already created by a great Olympic Games. Yesterday I was in Norfolk checking on our squad and staff and it is clear that they are all up to it. I watched a punishing schedule of fitness and tactics helped along by a number of scout players. Although the team is in 'lo...
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SUPER HUMANS

As the clock ticks away to the start of the games, the media focus grows. This past week we have seen a full page interview in the Daily Telegraph on Steve Brown and the launch of the C4 paralympic trailer, 'meet the super humans'. Both have been extraordinary in the interest they have captured for our sport and the interest in those of you who play the game. I am always proud when I read what our athletes say to those who are interviewing them because it speaks volumes for the power of our game which extends beyond sport into a real sense of community. The sense is not confined to the elite game but I experience it with the vast majority of the athletes I meet who play the game. It is a goo...
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Who will be the 2016 Paralympians?

After the excitement of Vancouver and the Nationals, it is back to business for everyone. The GB team is now in Norfolk for an intense 6 weeks training before the start of the games. This week has seen the visit of the UK Anti-Doping team who tested all of our athletes as part of the routine test programme but apart from that it has been training and more training! This weekend sees a brief respite as the team travel to London for the Team GB launch. This will involve the issue of the GB kit, the official photograph with fellow GB paralympians from all sports and a celebration dinner in Billingsgate, after this it will be back to Norfolk. This weekend is also an important one for the Deve...
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Nationals Weekend

It has been another good Nationals weekend in Sheffield. The AGM was lively and a bit long but I thought there was some interesting questions and debate and I hope that Members are now more clear about the plans we have put forward to UK Sport and Sport England in support of our funding bids. I also found it good to catch up with people around the tournament and to get views on a whole range of issues – really valuable and helpful feedback , with the vast majority of it constructive and positive about the direction of travel. I was disappointed by some of the negative comment – not the fact that we got some – I would find it odd if we did not and it is important that we create an organ...
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Just before I fly..

The end of a very long week here in Vancouver and we fly back this evening. It has been a really interesting tournament in so many ways but perhaps the most significant thing to take away from it is that pretty much any of the top 6 teams are in the reckoning for London. The USA must still be the favourites as they came here without two of their top players and after some shaky games still managed to take the Gold from Canada in the final 56-53. This was the same Canada that earlier beat Sweden in the last minutes by 1 point and yet we beat Sweden in our last match of the tournament by 63-47. Japan is also looking very capable and in the first round actually beat the USA and of course Austra...
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