Special Olympics Medal Success in Bath

The Dumfries & Galloway team, taking part in the Special Olympics in Bath last week, did exceptionally well coming home with a fantastic medal haul of 8 golds, 7 silver and 7 bronze medals, a total of 22 medals across the 4 sports.   The team of 22 local athletes and 11 support staff had a great week at the event with the highlights of the week including the medal celebrations and the thrill of the team parade at the opening Ceremony in the Royal Crescent, Bath with Susan Boyle headlining the night.

The 6 athletes competing in Athletics did exceptionally well with Jessica Lamont of Dumfies taking 2 golds in the 100 metres and standing long jump and narrowly missed the medals coming 4^th in the softball throw.   Hayden Keir of Annan won gold in the standing long jump, silver in the softball throw and bronze in the the 100 metres.  Joel Smith of Annan took gold in the 50 metres, bronze in the standing long jump and 7^th in the softball throw. Katy Turner of Moffat won gold in the 100 metres walk, bronze in the 400 metre walk and achieved a new personal best in the softball throw.  Ian Anderson of Annan took Gold in the 50 metre walk, 5^th in the softball and 8^th in the standing long jump.  Louise Bousted of Annan took two silver medals in both her events of the 50metre walk and softball throw.

The Boccia team won medals in all their events, starting the week in the team event with a Bronze medal for Harriet Davis, Morgan Deer and Christian Mason and in the singles competition Morgan of Annan took gold, Harriet of Dalton took silver and Christian of Gretna took bronze.

The swim team had some great swims and although the competition was very tough medals went to Emma Crossley of Closeburn winning silver in the 25m freestyle and bronze in the 25m backcrawl. Stuart Stott of Annan took silver in the 25m freestyle, 5^th in the 25m freestyle and 8^th in the 25m backcrawl.  Emma Birley of Lockerbie achieved a gold in the 25m backcrawl, 6^th in the 50m freestyle and 8^th in the 25m freestyle.  Mandy Harkness of Annan took silver in the 25m backrawl, 5^th in the 50m freestyle and 8^th in the 25m freestyle.  Some of the team swimmers narrowly missed out on the medals but achieved new personal best times which is just as important and nothing more could have been asked of them, including Sam Pattinson of Rigg who took 4^th in the 50m freestyle and two 7^th positions in the 50m backcrawl and 100m freestyle.  Tammara McIlwean of Annan beat previous best times and achieved 5^th in the 25m backcrawl, 6^th in the 50m freestyle and 7^th in the 25m freestyle.  Kevin Ellwood of Middlebie took new personal best times and just missed out on a medal with 4^th in the 50m freestyle, 5^th in the 25m freestyle and 7^th in the 25m backcrawl.

The five-a-side football team, consisting of James Alder, Chris Corbett and Jack Morrison of Dumfries, Andrew Doyle and Jamie Minto of Annan and Darrel Stark of Lockerbie played exceptionally well in their round robin competition over the course of the 3 days and achieved a fantastic 3^rd place and taking home bronze medals.  The team had to play a total of 8 games with 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats over the course of the week but the games they lost were very close and went against the run of play with the D&G team taking numerous shots on goal but just couldn’t capitalise on their possesion.

The week culminated with some fun and friendly closing ceremonies for the athletes to enjoy with lots of dancing, singing and even some coaches races and competitions!.

The team was organised and entered by the Annandale & Eskdale and Dumfries and Galloway Disability sport groups in partnership with the Council’s Leisure & Sport section and and many new and lasting friendships were made between the athletes and the coaches.

Sandra Proudfoot, Team Manager and an Active Schools and Community Sport Officer added “The team did the area proud, all competing to their best and the medals were a great bonus.  They all behaved extremely well, made many new friends and didn’t want to come home!  I must thank the athletes for making it such an enjoyable, yet emotional week and special thanks to the coaches and support staff who all worked extremely hard to make sure the athletes had a great time.  I must also thank the large contingent of families who travelled down to support the team and everyone who supported the team in any way to make this trip possible, raising the necessary funds and preparing the athletes at the weekly sports clubs to compete at their best. We look forward to the 2017 Games with the aim of entering an even larger Dumfries & Galloway team and building on this success and hopefully competing in some additional sports”.