Following on the success of Team GB in the Paralympics this year, where home-grown athletes won 102 medals, Rotary did its bit to find the stars of the future with the renowned Rotary Disabled Sports Team Championships in Coventry.
More than 250 athletes competed at the annual sports competition at the Xcel Leisure Centre in Canley on Saturday November 8th and Sunday 9th organised and sponsored by the five Rotary clubs in Coventry and supported by clubs across England.
The 12 teams of competitors, who have physical and learning disabilities, came from Bristol and Gloucester, Derby, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Newark, North West England, Rugby, South Yorkshire/Lincolnshire, Wakefield, Hucknalland Coventry,
This year, the 27th year of the Championships, there were 13 disciplines: kurling, table tennis, table tennis for those with learning disabilities, rifle shooting, boccia team, boccia individual, darts, male weight lifting, female weight lifting,pitstop, swimming, triathlon and the slalom.
Organiser Ron Gibbs, from the Rotary Club of Coventry Jubilee,said: "The aim of the Championships is to promote team spirit and achievement. We also make it a prerequisite in the competition that each team has at least one boy or girl under the age of 16 years old in a bid to encourage sports clubs for the disabled to domore to develop young athletes.
"The essential point of these sports is the ability to take part and follow the true Olympian ideal whereby the participationis more important than the winning. We’re delighted to be hosting the event in the spectacular new Xcel LeisureCentre."
The Xcel Leisure Centre in Canley, which opened in June 2008, is part of the South West Coventry regeneration scheme. The £9m centre has been hailed as the ‘flagship’ for the regeneration scheme that has been designed with the needs of thelocal community in mind. It is one of 3 that make up the Coventry Sports Foundation, a charity where direction provided by Coventry Rotarian Directors has created superb facilities, not just sport, in under-privileged areas of the City.
The five Coventry Rotary clubs; Coventry, Coventry Breakfast,Coventry Jubilee, Coventry North and Coventry Phoenix and Coventry Rotaract club organise the Championship and, along with clubsacross the Midlands, raise more than £12,000 through event sponsorship and donations to put the event on. Rotary clubs and districts from across England provide the financial support fortravel and accommodation and accompany the competing teams.
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