The Special Olympics Suffolk Badminton squad had a great day recently at the Special Olympics Regional Tournament which was held in Wimbledon.

Just up the road from the All England Tennis Club, this singles badminton tournament was held for the very first time in the famous SW19 area of South London.

Special Olympics Suffolk had nine players competing for the medals across the various divisions. They were joined by competitors from a variety of Special Olympics groups including Wimbledon, Southampton, Exeter and the Isle of Wight.

“This tournament is a very welcome addition to the Special Olympics calendar”, said Mike McCarthy, from Special Olympics Suffolk and ActivLives, and Coach to the Suffolk group. “It has been brilliant for our players to play at such a prestigious venue, against opponents, many of whom, they hadn’t competed against before”.

The Suffolk team did the county proud by winning a number of medals including two Golds won by Donna Wyatt and Harry Creasey, who both topped their respective divisions.

The team completed a great day by taking part in the Team Relay event, a competition that puts all of the competitors into mixed teams across all of the abilities and groups represented on the day.

If you would like to get involved with Special Olympics Badminton in Suffolk (the group is based in Ipswich), please contact Mike McCarthy at mike@activlives.org.uk or call on 01473 345350.

Following discussions between Paul Richardson, Chairman of Special Olympics GB Board of Trustees and Michelle Carney, CEO of Special Olympics GB, given the quickly changing environment and government response to Covid-19, it has been decided that NO Special Olympics activity is to take place in any club until further notice as a precautionary measure.

This is in line with the directives received from Mary Davis, CEO, Special Olympics International.

This applies to all club activity, competitions, events, training sessions, group activities or gatherings set to be hosted or attended by your regions and clubs.   This also applies to any Regional meetings and AGMs which are due to take place. We ask that moving forward, if a meeting is deemed to be urgent, this must take place via telephone or video conferencing and Sam Wothers from National Office is on hand to help coordinate as we have the facilities to make this happen.

Please note, this directive supersedes all previous emails.  

We understand this is a worrying time for everyone with the situation changing daily but as the number of cases across GB continues to increase, so too does the risk of contracting Covid-19.  Given the vulnerability of our athletes, we must take all necessary precautions to ensure we do not expose them and our volunteers to additional risk.

We must also ensure the same applies to our personnel, so it has been decided that all staff in National Office work from home until further notice.   All staff will continue to be contactable via email and mobile and are available if you have any questions or need further information.   Contact details of everyone can be found on our website if need be:   https://www.specialolympicsgb.org.uk/who-we-are/staff

 We know this will be disappointing news for many – especially our amazing athletes.   However, we are sure you can appreciate that, as an organisation, the health and welfare of our athletes is our number one priority and we must do everything we possibly can to minimise the impact on them and our volunteers of contracting the virus.

 Should you become aware of an athlete or volunteer testing positive for CoVid-19 please contact myself by email using the details below as soon as possible.     

We will continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis and will be in touch as developments unfold.

In the meantime, if you need anything further, please let us know.   We sincerely hope that you, your family, friends and colleagues are safe and healthy and continue to be so.

Many thanks for your understanding.

All the best 

Paul Lockyer, Chief Operating Officer 

Special Olympics GB 

paul.lockyer@sogb.org.uk 

M: 07611 646508