Newsletter March 2012

Panathlon Challenge provides coach education courses, training funds, equipment and multi-sport competitions for young disabled people.    
Mayor of London Action Underway!

Jack Petchey Logo skySo far in 2012, there have been 13 Panathlon competitions involving over 1,000 disabled young people.  Thirty-two London boroughs have been involved and have received coaching grants in order to prepare their teams for the competitions which are now underway.

Twenty boroughs will compete again in the five regional finals in March. Those results will give us our five finalists for the June Grand Final. Results, pics, blogs and news reports of all t
he action to date here.    

Paralympic Footballer Josh Beachem awarded medals to competitors in Ealing in January 
Having fun at a regional competition in February  
JPFLogo Jack Petchey Partnership

We are delighted to announce that the Jack Petchey Foundation will, once again, be supporting us this year with a very generous grant of �78,245 for continued and enhanced delivery of the Panathlon Challenge in London and Essex.

The Foundation has now invested over �250,000 in Panathlon over the last eight years and has been crucial to our growth and development. Please see the full news release here. A huge thank you from the thousands of our Panathletes who have competed and benefitted during that time.

Some of our JPF Young Panathlon Officials
Some of our JPF Young Panathlon Officials
Panathlon around the country
As well as the five regional finals in London, (see fixtures here) the other sporting competitions in 2012 include:

Essex Semi 1Tue 24th AprilRiverside SC, Chelmsford
Essex Semi 2Thur 26th April Braintree College, Essex.
Kent WestTues 1st MayMalling School, Kent.
Kent East Wed 2nd MayUrsuline College, Thanet.
Kent CentralThur 3th MaySittingbourne CC, Kent.
Beds / BucksThur 16th MayNew ! - Stoke Mandeville
Cambridge
Wed 30th MayNew ! - Venue TBC
SurreyTues 12th JuneNew ! - Venue TBC
Kent FinalWed 13th JuneSevenoaks School Kent.
MerseysideWed 13th JuneGreenbank Academy.
London Final Thur 14th JuneWestway Sports Centre.
Essex Final Thur 28th June Basildon Sports Village
SuffolkFri 6th JulyNew ! Venue TBC
Mini-Marathon Wheelchair Race 

Are you a manual wheelchair user and up for a challenge? Fancy racing along The Mall, the final stretch of the London Marathon, ahead of the main race on Sunday April 22nd 2012?  

 

Panathlon is on the look-out for any wheelchair athletes (under 14 boys and girls - Must be born on or after 1st September 1997 or under 17 boys and girls - Must be born on or after 1st September 1994) Be quick though as the closing Entry date is 21st March. (Click here for entry form.)  

 

wheelchair racer

The entry criteria states that 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 [email protected] for more information. Download information flyer here.

 

London Stansted chooses Panathlon
Stansted
The Panathlon Challenge will be the focus of London Stansted's fundraising efforts for 2012 after being chosen as the airport's inaugural charity partner.


Danny Crates, Paralympic Gold Medallist from Essex and sporting patron of the Panathlon charity, said,  "It is fantastic news that Stansted staff have chosen the Panathlon Challenge as their first ever charity partner." Read the full story here.

 

Panathlon competitors from Southview School, and Paralympians Dan Bentley and Danny Crates play Boccia at the airport terminal with Colin Matthews, London Stansted's Chief Executive. 
Kent Panathlon

The fourth year of the Kent Panathlon kicks off after Easter, with the support of the Charles Harris Academy and the JCB Group, who are kindly supporting our work after the expiration of the three-year grant from Children in Need.

We are also working with our new partners, Kent Sport, and combining our Grand Final in June with the Final of the Kent School Games. Panathlon will involve around 250 young disabled competitors and 50 Young Leaders in Kent from April to June. More details from [email protected].

17th April - Young Officials Course - Ursuline College, Thanet
23rd April - Young Officials Course - The Malling School
27th April - Young Officials Course - Sittingbourne CC
1st May - Panathlon West - The Malling School
2nd May - Panathlon East - Ursuline College, Thanet
3rd May - Panathlon Central - Sittingbourne CC
Essex Panathlon
Jack Petchey Logo sky  HiltonF Stansted
Following our first event this year in November, the two Essex semi-finals will take place on 24th and 26th April. Nine area  teams will compete for a place in the Essex Final combining with the Essex School games Final at Basildon Sports Village on June 28th. Lets see if anyone can dethrone current champions - Thurrock!

We are also delivering several Young Panathlon Officials courses in Essex and working with Essex County Cricket Club to deliver a Table Cricket Officials award on Thursday 29th March at the College at Braintree. More details from - [email protected]
 
Team Thurrock 2011 Essex Champions
School Games     
Panathletes on the Olympic Track!

Mayor of London
London Mayor Boris Johnson with Panathletes at the launch of Gold Challenge on Feb 28th

Thanks for a once in a lifetime opportunity from Gold Challenge and the Mayor of London, 20 Panathlon athletes will compete in the Olympic Stadium on Gold Challenge Day. Full story read here.
Gold Challenge
Schools, if you are interested in being part of the Gold Challenge, please click here! (you can support us a charity too by getting involved !)

Panathlon starts swimming! 

In an exciting new initiative, Panathlon is developing with the ASA, a new competitive format which will be piloted with 6 East London Teams on May 2nd at Clissold Pool in Hackney and then again with 6 West London Teams at Northolt on May 3rd. We will report back on this in future newsletters with a potential plan to roll it out further in 2013. Panathlon has already successfully qualified 20 Young Aquatic Officials and will utilise these in the new competitions in May. More details from [email protected]

Mill Hill Supports Panathlon
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill, London's leading co-educational day and boarding school for pupils aged 13-18 is supporting the Panathlon charity in their work this year and has already raised over �2,500 for Panathlon's work in North London. This has been achieved by a variety of fund raising efforts and will continue throughout 2012. Panathlon are training Mill Hill's Sports Leaders and will utilise their skills later in the year at a high profile multi-sports competition. Read full story here 

 

Fundraising Dinner

Enjoy a 4 course dinner with champagne and support the Panathlon charity at the same time. Click here to download the flyer and application form 


 
Coach Education
Jack Petchey Logo sky

Young Leaders - Panathlon has successfully delivered 12 Young Panathlon Officials courses in London, Essex and Wiltshire and nearly 200 sports leaders have been qualified and then have demonstrated their new skills as Panathlon "officials" in sports competitions across the country. Well done to you all. You can read in the BLOG section of the website, various views from the Leaders over the last few months.

 

Sports Awards - Panathlon has  successfully qualified over 100 coaches in swimming, table cricket,new age kurling and Boccia in partnership with the National Governing Bodies of each sport. More to follow this summer, watch this space!" 

Mayor of London 

Ways to follow Panathlon
Keep up-to-date with all the action by watching the Panathlon Channel on YouTube
View our videos on YouTube

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

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

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

Sponsor our London Marathon Runner
St Jame's Place Logo
Please help to support Panathlon by sponsoring our runner in this years London Marathon on 22nd April.
Marathon
Amanda Tingley from our partners the St. James's Place Foundation is running her first marathon and is helping to raise funds for us, by running her socks off over 26.2 miles around the streets of London. A huge thank you from us all. You can inspire Amanda along the way by clicking on to her fundraising page here
 
justgiving text



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.
   panathlon  capital cropped St Jame's Place Logo HiltonF Mayor of London