Latest News - 17/11/2013
D & G special olympic squad grace Galabank
Annan Athletic FC were delighted to welcome the Dumfries and Galloway special Olympic squad back to Galabank to show off their impressive hall of medals. The squad have carried out fundraising around the club and AAFC and it’ supporters club were delighted to lend their support in the purchase of their football strips.
The Dumfries & Galloway team, taking part in the Special Olympics in Bath last month, did exceptionally well coming home with a fantastic medal haul of 8 golds, 7 silver and 7 bronze medals, a total of 22 medals across the 4 sports. The team of 22 local athletes and 11 support staff had a great week at the event with the highlights of the week including the medal celebrations and the thrill of the team parade at the opening Ceremony in the Royal Crescent, Bath with Susan Boyle headlining the night.
The 6 athletes competing in Athletics did exceptionally well with Jessica Lamont of Dumfries taking 2 golds in the 100 metres and standing long jump and narrowly missed the medals coming 4th in the softball throw. Hayden Keir of Annan won gold in the standing long jump, silver in the softball throw and bronze in the the 100 metres. Joel Smith of Annan took gold in the 50 metres, bronze in the standing long jump and 7th in the softball throw. Katy Turner of Moffat won gold in the 100 metres walk, bronze in the 400 metre walk and achieved a new personal best in the softball throw. Ian Anderson of Annan took Gold in the 50 metre walk, 5th in the softball and 8th in the standing long jump. Louise Bousted of Annan took two silver medals in both her events of the 50metre walk and softball throw.
The Boccia team won medals in all their events, starting the week in the team event with a Bronze medal for Harriet Davis, Morgan Deer and Christian Mason and in the singles competition Morgan of Annan took gold, Harriet of Dalton took silver and Christian of Gretna took bronze.
The swim team had some great swims and although the competition was very tough medals went to Emma Crossley of Closeburn winning silver in the 25m freestyle and bronze in the 25m back crawl. Stuart Stott of Annan took silver in the 25m freestyle, 5th in the 25m freestyle and 8th in the 25m back crawl. Emma Birley of Lockerbie achieved a gold in the 25m back crawl, 6th in the 50m freestyle and 8th in the 25m freestyle. Mandy Harkness of Annan took silver in the 25m back crawl, 5th in the 50m freestyle and 8th in the 25m freestyle. Some of the team swimmers narrowly missed out on the medals but achieved new personal best times which is just as important and nothing more could have been asked of them, including Sam Pattinson of Rigg who took 4th in the 50m freestyle and two 7th positions in the 50m back crawl and 100m freestyle. Tammara McIlwean of Annan beat previous best times and achieved 5th in the 25m back crawl, 6th in the 50m freestyle and 7th in the 25m freestyle. Kevin Ellwood of Middlebie took new personal best times and just missed out on a medal with 4th in the 50m freestyle, 5th in the 25m freestyle and 7th in the 25m backcrawl.
The five-a-side football team, consisting of James Alder, Chris Corbett and Jack Morrison of Dumfries, Andrew Doyle and Jamie Minto of Annan and Darrel Stark of Lockerbie played exceptionally well in their round robin competition over the course of the 3 days and achieved a fantastic 3rd place and taking home bronze medals. The team had to play a total of 8 games with 4 wins, 1 draw and 3 defeats over the course of the week but the games they lost were very close and went against the run of play with the D&G team taking numerous shots on goal but just couldn’t capitalise on their possession.
