Disability Sports Club Celebrates Landmark Anniversary

A sports club that was set up as in order to look at the drastic lack of goalball clubs in Southern England has celebrated it's tenth anniversary. Winchester Goalball Club which was established by Paralympian Adam Knott specialises in finding ways to help incorporate the blind and partially sighted community make their way in the sporting world. Adam who is visually impaired himself wanted to leave a legacy that would help promote the elements of equality and inclusivity to ensure that disabled sports professionals are not left feeling isolated or vulnerable at a time when there are not many facilities aimed at allowing them to take part in sport and maintain social contact with their friends and peers.

With the aim of helping people experience an exciting and physical sport which they may not have heard of, he began working with Peter Symonds College, who are home to WGC as well as BBC Children in Need, and Winchester Rotary Club.

“I am delighted that the Club has reached its 10th year! Since starting in 2013 I never could have imagined the success that the Club has achieved. A huge thank you to all our players, volunteers and supporters for all their work over the last 10 years”

That's according to Mr Knott who was looking at finding ways to lessen the amount of isolation people felt as a result of having a disability. In today's world, people tend to mainly focus on sports that they have heard of in the media and therefore will know a lot about to talk to their mates. Companies who want to advertise their products will also tend to target these events as they will know large numbers of people are likely to be watching and so is more likely to increase the revenue that they can earn or bring in from such products.

Sports aimed at disabled participants will be mainly ignored by the majority of the population as they won't know much about them and so it may make them feeling odd starting a conversation with their peers about something they might not have heard of. More exposure needs to be given to such sporting events to help enable more people to take part and improve inclusivity in society.

“Adam is truly committed to goalball. Without people like Adam acting as catalysts to develop goalball clubs around the UK we would struggle to meet demand.

“We’re incredibly lucky to have such dedicated individuals involved in the sport and the volunteers and players at Winchester Goalball Club are no exception.”

That's according to Mark Winder, CEO of Goalball UK.

Goalball is a unique team sport for blind and partially sighted people which was originally created for soldiers who lost their sight in the second World War, debuting on the Paralympic stage in Toronto, Canada, in 1976.

Over the last decade, the Winchester Goalball Club has seen many triumphs across all playing levels of the game, from novice to elite level and even club players representing Great Britain across the men’s and women’s teams. Despite Adam now living and working in New Zealand, the Club continues under the stewardship of Bridget Knott (Adam's mother) and a team of volunteers.

The facility has helped many people take part and improve their skills in Goalball. This helps to raise the profile of the sport and give it much more exposure than it does at the moment. The more exposure the sport gets, the better chance the people taking part will have of earning a living from it and building relationships with new people. This helps society function better as more people will be able to get to know each other and work together.