CEO May Blog
May has been a busy month at GBWR.
RMA Nationals
I managed to get down to the Sunday session at the RMA Nationals this year and I must say it had a fantastic atmosphere. There was lots of noise and a real buzz around the venue. Over 3000 people tuned into our live stream, which while relatively basic at the moment, definitely did the job. The team are continually reviewing how we improve our game presentation capabilities and by 2025 we aim to have a much-improved game day and streaming set up across the board.
The Nationals had a new award this year with the PlayerLayer MVP award. We created the Belong merchandise range with PlayerLayer earlier this year available here. Thank you PlayerLayer for supporting this award with winners getting a full range of Belong merchandise. Hannah Bucys was the Nationals Cup MVP and Chris Wilson the Shield MVO.
The Nationals Shield winners were Leicester Tigers Swift, and the Nationals Cup winners were the West Country hawks. Congratulations to both clubs for the victory. I would also like to say a huge thank you to the other teams involved across the weekend:
West Coast Burn
RGC
OSPREYS
London Crusaders
Solent Sharks
Stoke Mandeville Maulers
Banshaneers
Officials
A big thank you to our officials who regularly put in long shifts at league weekends. It was great to see such many our officials achieve new qualifications at this year’s Nationals:
Level 3 referees:
Abby Montgomery
Marcus Ross
Marcus Aghatabay
Nick Walsh
Level 3 table officiala
Gary Spratt
Jo Montgomery
Level 1 referees
Tayla
Darren Dowey
Level 1 table officials
Ruth Clarke
Glynis Aghatabay
Thank you all for your commitment to the sport.
Allied Mobility Wheelchair Rugby 5s
WR5s final competition is this month and Leicester Tigers are currently sitting on top of the Premiership, Solent Sharks are currently leading the Championship, Crawley Jets are top of Division 1, and RGC lead Division 2. WR5s continues stellar growth especially across women and girls’ participation which is fantastic. Thank you to all the teams who took part in the league this year.
Paralympics preparation
The GB team are full steam ahead in preparation for the Paralympics and their final competition in June at the Canada Cup. As the summer approaches rapidly, all eyes will be on the Paralympics this year in Paris. The draw for wheelchair rugby is scheduled for the end of June so look out for dates and announcements shortly.
Best regards,
Jason
CEO, GB Wheelchair Rugby
