Special Olympics Suffolk partner, ActivLives, held an Inclusive Badminton Tournament recently at Gainsborough Sports Centre in Ipswich, with 29 athletes competing in the singles and doubles events.

These tournaments are open to players who have an intellectual disability, most of the athletes taking part also compete in Special Olympics competitions around the country. 

The standard of play was excellent throughout the day, with some extremely close matches deciding the final medal placings, across all four divisions.

Players from Suffolk, were joined by visiting teams from Wimbledon and Southampton to compete for the medal placings. The event concluded with a very exciting ‘Team Relay’ match, involving all of the competitors.  

“These events are so much fun to be involved with, the volunteers enjoy them almost as much as the players! Huge thanks must go to our brilliant team of volunteers, without them, events like this simply wouldn’t take place”, said Mike McCarthy from ActivLives.

ActivLives are very grateful to everyone who continues to support these events including Special Olympics Suffolk and Ipswich Borough Council.

If you would like to find out more about inclusive badminton with ActivLives, call on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk 

Recently we celebrated National Boccia Day with a tournament at Whitton Sports Centre, it was a great day with groups from across Suffolk coming together to play.

There were over 30 competitors in the tournament and some fierce competition took place, we were thrilled to be visited by BBC Radio Suffolk to interview a few of the players too! Special thanks goes to the volunteers who reffed the games and marked out the courts. It was generally agreed a great time was enjoyed by everyone. Take a look below for a few photos from the day’s brilliant Boccia action.

To take a listen of the BBC Radio Suffolk interview then simply click this link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cywkpt

The first part of the interview can be heard from 40 minutes in and then listen in from 2 hours 7 minutes to hear interviews with the players and also discover how the reporter got on when she gave boccia a go.

We host a regular boccia session on Thursdays between 10:30am-12:30pm to find out more and get involved contact Mike on mike@activlives.org or call the office on 01473 345350.