Warwick Sport hosts disabled sport festival

Warwick Sport hosted the Discover Disabled Sport festival on Saturday November 23.

The event, sponsored by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), saw a turnout of over 50 people for taster sessions in three different sports.

These sports were wheelchair tennis, blind athletics and wheelchair basketball, all of which gained considerable recognition in London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The event was contributed to by a number of notable guests, including Warwick University’s Dani Caverzaschi, who was selected to represent Spain in wheelchair tennis at last year’s Paralympics, British Paralympian Hannah Cockrof and Paul Claridge of the Coventry Wheelchair Basketball Academy.

The event had two aims: To make students more aware of aware of a range of disabilities and thereby support sports clubs in making their offerings more accessible to disabled students, and secondly, to forge links with disabled sports clubs in Warwickshire for Warwick students to make use of.

Zoe Buckland, the Students’ Union sports officer, was delighted with the success of the event.

Ms Buckland commented: “Feedback from this weekend was so positive and confirmed that we really did fulfil our aims for this event.

“I am thrilled, and very proud, to say we saw the biggest there’s ever been at a disabled sport event at Warwick.”

She was also determined that this event should not be a one off: “My aspiration is to create a sustainable provision of sport for disabled students here at Warwick.”

President of Warwick Enable, Andrew Thompson, was also enthusiastic about the impact of the event.

Speaking to the Boar, he commented: “The weekend was definitely a success with so many people, of all abilities, coming together to participate in disabled sport.

“From an on campus perspective, it was great to see four of our sabbatical officers get really involved in the basketball session, and so many exec members of our sports clubs taking part in blind athletics: this weekend has really helped many more people become aware of disability.”