With just 5 weeks to go before the team leave for Denmark, GBWR has just announced the team for the 2014 World Championships in Odense; congratulations to: Jim Roberts; Ayaz Bhuta, Mandip Sehmi, Jamie Stead, Alan Ash, Chris Ryan, Gavin Walker, Mike Kerr, Coral Batey, Bulbul Hussain, Jonathan Coggan and Muhammad Fakrul Islam. With Myles Pearson, Kylie Grimes and Paul McDerby in reserve, this exciting team with its mix of experience and youth will want to build on the encouraging performances seen in the Canada Cup.
Yesterday the team was joined at its Leicester Camp by the Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, Minister of State for Disabled People who met the athletes and staff and enjoyed joining in a training session. His enthusiasm for the game was clear to us all and I am sure we will see him back in a chair again. The squad is now hard at it as they prepare for the Worlds and this weekend we will welcome France for a 4 match tournament in Leicester.
Progress continues towards WWRC15 and this week I am pleased to announce that we have appointed Martyn Salt as the Event Director. Martyn is an experienced event professional and had key roles in London 2012 for delivering the Olympic Mountain Bike Competition and the Paralympic bike events at Brands Hatch and the Velodrome. Martyn shares our ambition to make WWRC15 more than just a game of rugby; we want this to be an exciting experience for spectators, as well as a top performance event for athletes – so we welcome Martyn to our team.
As always there has been lots of other activity over the last week. Our Rugby Wheels programme arrived in the North East with sessions delivered at Percy Headley Sports Academy – a big thank you to Newcastle Falcons who supported the event. We hope that the promotion of the game here will draw some new players into the Bulls. Mike Spence and Paul Jenkins have also started working with potential players for the Invictus GB team. They have a busy programme ahead as they build towards the Invictus Trials which will be at the end of July. Last week saw the delivery of new chairs which will be used for the programme. Built by Roma Sports and sponsored by Help 4 Heroes, they look great with their GB branding.
That’s all for now – enjoy the sunshine, football and Wimbledon and if you are in Leicester at the weekend drop in and see GB play against France.
David Pond
