December News from Panathlon

Newsletter Winter 2011

Panathlon Challenge provides coach education courses, training funds, equipment and multi-sport competitions for young disabled people.

Essex Panathlon

Further to our recent Wiltshire events, the Panathlon bandwagon travelled to Essex in November with a competition at Braintree College featuring teams from Colchester, Witham and Tendring.
A Panathlon "Young Officials Course" was held the week before, with students from Braintree College. The students then officiated at the competition with assistance from members of staff and partners from Hilton London Stansted and the Woodland Group. Eighty-five athletes with disabilities took part in 5 sports, with Southview School from Witham being triumphant! (Full story here, Pics here, Blog here)

Plans for 2012

There are currently 40 multi-sport competitions planned across the country and 15 Coach Education Courses which will involve around 3,000 young people. 2012 is going to be the biggest and most exciting year for Panathlon to celebrate an inspiring year of sport ahead. To see the full list of fixtures as new dates are added regularly.

Team Newham London Champions 2011.

In London we ran a successful conference in November with 50 delegates who contributed their thoughts on Panathlon and the future direction. It is always good to receive positive feedback and listen to those at the sharp-end about how we can play a part in providing competitive sport for disabled young people.

Many thanks to our friends at Irwin Mitchell for kindly hosting the day!

Jack Petchey Outstanding Achievement Award

On December 7th we announced the winners of the 2011 Jack Petchey Outstanding Achievement Award. After much debate and an incredibly tight 'vote', the three shortlisted students gathered at Hilton London Stansted, where all were awarded a Jack Petchey Achiever Award. The overall winner Zach Livings from Thurrock, was presented with the title of 2011 Jack Petchey Outstanding Achiever. Zach is pictured below in the middle !

In second place was Ryan Balkwill (left) from Southview School in Witham and 3rd place was Shaun White (right) from St. Giles School in Croydon. Full story here. All nominees are truly inspiring and deserve to be recognised. Well Done!

Thanks to British Paralympic Trust

Panathlon ran a successful pilot in Central London in November with 11 schools in a range of "School Games" sports. Eighty young disabled athletes took part, and in partnership with Boccia England, a talent identification and classification process took place. Furthermore, Panathlon also utilised the skills of several deaf and hearing impaired students as Young Boccia Officials, having delivered a training course early in the year. Read about what they thought about the course here.

The winners of 2 sports on the day (pictured here) was Lilian Baylis School from Lambeth

Mini-Marathon Wheelchair Race

Are you a manual wheelchair user and up for a challenge? Fancy racing along the Mall ahead of the main London Marathon race on Sunday April 22nd 2012 ? Panathlon is on the look out for any wheelchair athletes (Under 14 Boys & Girls - Must be born on or after 1st September 1997 or Under 17 Boys & Girls - Must be born on or after 1st September 1994)

Shaun & Michael, Panathlon athletes from St. Giles School in Croydon, and successful Mini-Marathon racers, pictured at the finish line at last years race

The entry criteria requires participants must be able to self propel themselves over three miles within the time limit of 45 minutes. Competitors can either use a standard or racing chair. We can point you in the direction of your nearest club and may be able to help with coaching funds and possibly access a racing chair. We are especially interested to speak to our Panathlon racers outside the London area! Email ashley@panathlon.com for more information. Download information flyer here

Swimming in London

In an exciting development, Panathlon and the ASA, are trialling the inclusion of swimming into the London programme in 2012. A new format has been designed and will be tested with 12 boroughs in March and then a Final is planned alongside our main London Final on June 14th. Furthermore, Panathlon is hosting a Young Aquatic Leaders course which is taking place at Hillingdon Sports Complex on January 23rd. More details from chris@panathlon.com. We will keep you updated on progress!

Panathlon moves
to Stansted

In a partnership deal with Hilton London Stansted, Panathlon is now based at Stansted Airport. Hilton in the Community Foundation have supported Panathlon again in 2011 with a donation of £4,984. Panathlon and the Hilton Community Foundation are working on joint fundraising plans for 2012, watch this space for more info!

Our new contact details are: Panathlon Challenge,
C/O Hilton Hotel, Round Coppice Road, Stansted Essex CM24 1SF. Tel 01279 680980.

Coach Education

Panathlon is delivering at least 15 courses in the coming months for young leaders in a range of sports and is going to train a further 100+ "Young Panathlon Leaders" who will officiate at our competitions in the coming year.

Young Panathlon Officials Course
in action

Governing Body of Sport qualifications will be offered too; including Boccia, Table Cricket, New Age Kurling and Polybat. More details from

chris@panathlon.com

Panathlon is in discussions to run School Games competitions in various places around the country in 2012 including, Essex, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Kent. New Panathlon events are also planned in Surrey and Beds/Bucks.

More information will be available in the New Year. Exciting times of development as Panathlon grows !

Ways to follow Panathlon

Keep up-to-date with all the action by watching the Panathlon Channel on YouTube

See 250+ photos from competitions in 2011 by viewing the gallery.

Follow all the Panathlon action @panathlon with regular updates on our activity around the country.

Read our coaches, competitors and Paralympic visitor's blogs.

Donating by text is already working well for large charities such as Comic Relief. Now, you can donate to Panathlon, and every penny goes straight to our charity, with no extra costs or admin charges. Just text:
PANT12 £5 to 70700. (If you are feeling extra generous, you can replace the £5 with any amount you wish!) Thank you for any and all contributions you make.