ActivLives and Special Olympics Suffolk welcomed in 2023 this week, by resuming their Inclusive Badminton and Boccia sessions in Ipswich. Athletes in both sports have plenty to look forward to with several tournaments and festivals coming up this Spring. If you would like to find out more about how to get involved, please call on 01473 345350 or email mike@activlives.org.uk   

Special Olympics Suffolk delivery partner, ActivLives, were well represented at the recent Active Suffolk Awards evening, held at Trinity Park in Ipswich. The event presents an annual opportunity to recognise and celebrate some of the county’s top sports heroes, physical activity advocates, community groups and schools.

Two long-standing volunteers, Don Golding and John Doy, were shortlisted for the ‘Unsung Hero’ Award and the ActivSport project was shortlisted in the ‘Innovative Project’ category. Don and John were being recognised for their continued work in helping to develop inclusive badminton opportunities in the Ipswich area, through the partnership between Special Olympics Suffolk and ActivLives.

Many congratulations to all of those who are involved with the inclusive sport work as part of the ActivSport project https://activlives.org.uk/activsports/

(Photos were taken on the evening by Keith Mindham)

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.

Special Olympics Suffolk badminton players proudly flew the flag for the Eastern Region , at the National Special Olympics Badminton Tournament held at the University of Wolverhampton Sports Campus in Walsall. The team of 12 players from Suffolk, did a brilliant job of representing our county and region, winning a total of 13 medals across the range of singles and doubles events. “The competition was often tough, and it certainly wasn’t all ‘plain sailing’ for our team, but they all stuck to their task brilliantly throughout the two days of play”, said coach, Mike McCarthy. “All of our players were a real credit to Special Olympics Suffolk and the Eastern Region”.  

The athletes were presented with their medals by Colin Dyer, the recently appointed CEO of Special Olympics GB. “I’m loving the energy and passion of the Suffolk/Eastern team”, said Colin.  

A big thank you to all of the Suffolk volunteer coaches and great supporters who made the weekend possible, and so enjoyable, and to ActivLives, who continue to support the delivery of the weekly training sessions in Ipswich.

Former Special Olympics Suffolk athlete Hetty Bartlett will be sprinting for gold in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games. The 31-year-old represented Team England at Tokyo Paralympics, competing in the long jump, finishing sixth. Hetty has switched sports for the Games and will be competing in the Women’s T37/38 final on 2nd August between 6:30pm – 10:30pm.

Cerebral Palsy Sport completed an interview with Hetty to find out how her preparations have gone on. To read about the interview, please click here.

Special Olympics Suffolk hosted a very successful Eastern Region Special Olympics GB Summer Series of Sport Athletics competition on Saturday 9th July at Bury St Edmunds. In addition to Special Olympics Suffolk, athletes travelled from London, St Albans, Essex and Norfolk to take part in what turned out to be an excellent day’s athletics, the first opportunity for most to compete after a two year gap due to the pandemic.

Running alongside a Suffolk Quadkids competition, this Special Olympics event was part of the Festival of Suffolk Community Games, one of Suffolk’s headline events to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. An added attraction was the visit by the Queen’s Baton Relay to the track on its way to the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.

A big thank you to the qualified athletics officials and to the many supporting volunteers who made this a memorable occasion for our athletes. You can download the results of the competition below or check out our gallery to see more photos of the event!

A Rackets Taster event was held recently at Ipswich Sports Club in Ipswich, attracting 24 participants. The activities, which were targeted at athletes with a learning disability, included a variety of tennis and badminton skills and challenges. Several of the players were new to one or both of these great sports. Many thanks to Ipswich Sports Club, Wots Up, Papworth Trust, ActivLives and Special Olympics Suffolk for their hard work in making this event happen. It is planned to run a similar event again in the autumn.  

Eight athletes from the ActivLives/Special Olympics Suffolk group competed recently, at a new Para-Disability tournament organised by Kent Badminton and held in Gillingham.

“This was our athletes first competition outside of Suffolk, since February 2020. All of them did a great job of flying the flag for Suffolk”, said Mike McCarthy, from ActivLives. Our team won a variety of medals in both the Singles and Doubles events.

A big thank you to Mags Fortune and family members, who supported our athletes throughout the weekend.

The next target for our players will be the Special Olympics National Tournament, being held in Walsall on the 20th-21st August.

Special Olympics Suffolk partner, ActivLives supported a team of their players to compete at the ‘Back to Boccia’ Central tournament, organised by Boccia England, which was held recently at the University of Hertfordshire.

Eleven players from the ActivBoccia group, who play weekly at Whitton Sports Centre in Ipswich, competed in a variety of classifications in Hatfield.

“We had players competing in the BC2, BC6 and BC8 classifications over the weekend”, said Mike McCarthy from ActivLives, “they all did a fabulous job of adapting to the level of competition which they faced. For all of our BC8 players, (those with an intellectual disability), this was their first ever competition at this level”, said Mike.

The players have been supported each week by ActivLives Session Leader, Ally Embley and GB Paralympian, Evie Edwards.

Many thanks also to Mags Fortune, from local disability provider, Wots Up, for her support in making it possible for athletes to compete at this event.

We hope that Suffolk players will compete again later this year, in Boccia England and/or Special Olympics events.