大象传媒

Optua (formerly known as Rethink Disability) is hoping to improve on the county's failure to provide any competitors for the Athens 2004 Paralympics.听 At Sydney 2000, Suffolk's only competitor was Haverhill's wheelchair basketball player Caroline MacLean.听 Priority sports would be basketball, football, tennis, sailing and athletics.听

The county does have one successful coach however.听 David Hilton was the GB Archery team's performance director and they won two gold medals in Athens (see link to article in the right-hand column).

Kevin Curtis at the Portman Road launch

The Chief Executive of Optua, Colin Poole, says "Our vision is for an academy which supports clubs with improvements to facilities and coaching, brings new Paralympic sports to Suffolk and acts as a signposting service to link disabled people to clubs who can give them that chance to go for gold."

The idea is still very much in the planning stages and has no budget yet.听 Optua wants to bring local sports clubs together to form an umbrella organisation which can then bid for funding and sponsorship.听

The scheme was launched at Portman Road with support pledged by Ipswich Town's chairman David Sheepshanks and the British Paralympic Association.听听 The drive is being fronted by Suffolk sailor Kevin Curtis who won a gold at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics "Training and support at grass roots level is vital for anyone wanting to seriously take up a sport. The Paralympics and particularly London 2012 are a superb opportunity to get disabled people involved in sport and to improve facilities."

The Bury Bombers in action

Meanwhile, Suffolk's been given over 拢400,000 by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport to employ a team of sports coaches over the next three years for able-bodied sport.听 One of the first to be appointed has been a full-time Community Basketball Coach based at Westbourne High School in Ipswich under the auspices of Ipswich Borough Council.

Philip Lane at the Portman Road launch

Suffolk Sport is administering the whole scheme and its development manager Jane Horner says it'll have a huge impact "For most people, coaching is something they do in their spare time, squeezing it in between work and family commitments. Through this scheme we are able to provide paid employment for coaches and also provide them with a personalised programme of training and support to help them develop their skills."

Contact Optua on 01449 770154 and Suffolk Sport on 01502 523632.听 Use the links on the right-hand side of this page to visit their websites.