Special Olympics Suffolk delivery partner, ActivLives, recently held a Boccia Festival at Gainsborough Sports Centre in Ipswich, to help to celebrate National Boccia Day 2023. There were 42 participants from across the region, including visiting athletes from Special Olympics Peterborough, enjoying a fantastic day of Boccia action.

Boccia is a target sport played whilst sitting down. It is particularly suitable for players with a disability, although anyone can play.

Paralympian, Evie Edwards, a member of the GB Paralympic Boccia team in Tokyo and who now coaches the sport, supported the tournament as a referee and in presenting medals at the end of the day’s competition.

Mike McCarthy, ActivSport Development Officer at ActivLives, said “What a day! We had some brilliant boccia being played and the buzz in the hall was electric, especially during the medal play-off matches. We would like to thank Boccia England for their support for this event.” 

ActivLives are particularly grateful to all of the great volunteers who helped to make this event happen. If you are interested in trying Boccia in Ipswich, Stowmarket or Felixstowe, please email mike@activlives.org or call the ActivLives office on 01473 345350.

A group of Special Olympics Suffolk athletes enjoyed a great day recently, on a visit to the BBC Radio Suffolk studios in Ipswich. The visit was arranged as part of the Athlete Leadership Programme that some of our athletes are working towards. The group were hosted for the afternoon by BBC Sports Editor and Presenter, Graeme McLoughlin.

The athletes enjoyed a tour of the studios, recording an interview with Graeme about their Special Olympics exploits, and had first-hand experience of seeing Graeme prepare and introduce that afternoon’s ‘Matchday’ programme, as it went live on-air.

“I had the best day at the radio station, finding out how everything worked and I liked being interviewed and talking into the microphone“, said Alfie, one of the group members.

Another visit to the studios is being planned for a second group of our athletes, many of whom were involved (as athletes or volunteers), with the Special Olympics World Games, held in Berlin, earlier this year.