February News from Panathlon

Newsletter

February 2010

Welcome to the first Panathlon newsletter of 2010, which promises to be the biggest and best year yet, with over 3,000 young disabled people set to be involved.

London Kicks Off !

Panathlon has invested around £75,000 since September, across 28 London Boroughs in new sports equipment, coaching funds, training days for coaches and multi-sport competitions. New investment from the Mayors Sports Legacy Plan for London, has so far resulted in the introduction of 17 new special schools and around 350 more disabled young Londoners being involved. Internal Panathlons have taken place in several boroughs to select their squads for the 10 competitions taking place in the coming weeks. We will report

back on the next newsletter with who has qualified for the London Wide Final in June.

Football Development

Panathlon successfully held a F.A. Coaching Disabled Footballers Course in January with 21 Panathlon coaches. Also in conjunction with the Wheelchair Football Association ran a "Powerchair Football Course" at Aspire National Training Centre on February 5th. Panathlon aims to establish 5 training centres in London equipped with wheelchair football equipment and coaches, to promote the Powerchair Football game in 2010. If you have any Powerchair users that would like to play football, then please contact matthew@panathlon.com If you would like

to see some highlights of the Powerchair football on YouTube, click here

London Events

So far there has been 6 multi-sport Panathlon events, involving 20 London Boroughs and around 650 young disabled people taken place in 2010. The qualifiers for the West Final on March 19th are Ealing, Hounslow, Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon. The finalists for the Central Final on Feb 26th are Camden, Westminster, Wandsworth and Lambeth. And the qualifiers for the East Final on March 16th are Newham, Hackney, Barking & Dagenham and Redbridge. Well done to you all ! For the rest of the events click here www.panathlon.com/fixtures

Essex

8 School Sport Partnership Areas will compete in 2010, aiming to reach the Essex Final on July 1st. Essex County Council through the Carrying the Flame initiative are helping us deliver this work to over 250 disabled Essex school children.

Training Date	February 25th - Marks Hall Sports College, Harlow
North Semi- Final	April 22nd at Braintree College (Harlow, Colchester, Tendering & North West Essex)
South Semi-Final	April 23rd at Chelmsford Riverside (West Essex, Castle Point, Thurrock & Chelmsford)
Final	July 1st at Riverside Sports Centre, Chelmsford.

Kent

12 School Sports Partnerships will compete in 2010 and have already sent coaches to the Panathlon training days which took place in January. Equipment has been delivered and the coaching programmes is underway in preparation for 3 events in April and the Final on May 26th.

Central	April 27th (Sittingbourne, Mid Kent, Maidstone and Greenacre)
West	April 28th (Tonbridge, Malling, Dartford and Gravesham)
East	April 29th (Thanet, Herne Bay, Canterbury, Shepway)
Final	May 26th at The Malling School

Other Panathlon areas

Merseyside	3rd March Primary Panathlon 10th March Secondary Panathlon
Plymouth	31st March Pan Disability Panathlon
Swindon	20th May First Ever Panathlon !

For more information on Panathlon Challenge, please see www.panathlon.com

Jack Petchey Investment

Once again the Jack Petchey Foundation, has proven to be a great supporter of the work Panathlon does and has invested £35,000 across London and Essex for 2010. This will enhance the work we do in 10 London Boroughs and across the whole of the Essex area. We have developed further the Jack Petchey Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award, with a coaching bursary and athlete mentoring as a reward for the winners. Further details by clicking here

Charity of
the Year

In 2010, Panathlon aims to invest back in to the community £100,000 in sports coaching, £100,000 of disability sports equipment and £100,000 cost of delivering 50 multi-sports event days. Therefore we need to raise over £300,000 this year to enable us to meet these targets ! If you think you can help (even in the smallest way) then please get in touch with ashley@panathlon.com or get your company or organisation, to adopt us as your Charity of the Year. Please download our flyer here...

2010 Virgin London Marathon

Please help raise funds for the Panathlon charity, by sponsoring our runner in the London Marathon by clicking here. Yolanda Edwards, a friend of Panathlon, is running her first Marathon and please inspire her on her way by sponsoring her and helping the Panathlon charity.

Action Photo's from 2010