With 168 days to go before the London Paralympic Games, the British Paralympic Association today announced that, after a thorough review, it would endorse the host country slots for the men’s and women’s Goalball teams and the women’s Sitting Volleyball squad.
The announcements follow a day of detailed discussion and presentation from both sports at the BPA’s London headquarters, the end of a process put in place in November when the BPA delayed the decision relating to acceptance of the slots to give both sports time to progress further towards demonstrating credible performance.
The outcome of the review means that ParalympicsGB will for the first time in recent history have representation in every sport at the Paralympic Games. The next stage for both sports will be the nomination of athletes to fill these slots. This will take place in May and June.
5 Welsh players currently are members of both Sitting Volleyball teams following investment by the Disability Sport Wales Academy into the FDSW Celtic Dragons Sitting Volleyball team over the last 3 years. All the players hope the hard work will come to fruition later in the Summer when ParalympicsGB announce the final line-up of both teams.
Tim Hollingsworth, CEO of the British Paralympic Association said: "Congratulations to both sports on being able to take up their host country slots. I’m pleased that we are able to confirm that they are fully part of the team and we look forward to working as hard with them now as we have in the past year to ensure the best possible performance in London.
"I am proud of the process that we have gone through with these sports and strongly believe we have the right outcome. In setting such clear parameters for what constitutes credible performance, in particular what progression we expected to see since November last year, we have remained true both to our standards for the team and our ambition to have athletes compete in every sport in London."
Current GB Squad Members looking for selection into the London 2012 Paralympic Games are: James Roberts (Prestatyn) Sam Scott (Newport, Shropshire) Sam Bowen (Mountain Ash) Amy Brierley (Queensferry) & Jess o’Brien (Cardiff)
