WYS help identify talented disabled athletes
Published on: 16th May 2011
The next generation of disabled athletes were put through their paces in five sports at a talent-spotting day in Leeds.
58 pupils from schools across West Yorkshire gathered for the third County Athlete Assessment Day at John Charles Centre for Sport.
Governing bodies of football, boccia, table tennis, Wheelchair basketball and athletics were on the lookout for sporting stars of the future.
The event is part of the Playground to Podium (P2P) initiative and was organised by the Federation of Disability Sports Organisations and West Yorkshire Sport - the County Sports Partnership.
Calderdale double world champion wheelchair racer and Paralympic hopeful Hanna Cockroft was due to be guest of honour but sent a video message as she was training in Italy with the GB Paralympic team.
James Brown, Disability Sport Officer for West Yorkshire said: "The day was a great success. We had range of young people taking part and we had lots of positive feedback from coaches and the athletes. The next step is to engage them with community opportunities and we hope to see some of them move up to county squads and maybe representing their country one day."
P2P is a national scheme developed to identify and develop the ability of disabled athletes.
Playground to Podium, led by Sport England (in partnership with the English Federation of Disability Sport), the Youth Sport Trust and Paralympics GB creates a clear and professional disability sport pathway from school sport, through to club participation and on to elite performance.
The young people were chosen to attend through schools with the local Identifying Ability Days. As part of P2P, School Sports Partnerships are required to deliver 3 ability days per year with a selection of participants going forward to the West Yorkshire CAAD.
Participants identified through the NGB coaching teams will be invited along to sports specific training squads and Centres of Excellence to further their experience of performance environments. Information was also provided to participants about sporting opportunities in their local communities.
The event is organised by West Yorkshire Sport in association with the County FDSO development officer James Brown. In 2009 the West Yorkshire area was the first to hold an event of this kind in the country and proved to be a great way of inspiring young disabled athletes.
Watch Hannah's video address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl74TCWk9Ho
