Team Bristol is overall top team!
The British games took place between the 27th and 30th July in North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Events were based in several towns such as Motherwell, Hamilton and Wishaw and the lovely Strathclyde country park hosted the Cycling, 3km Walk and Mini Marathon.
Team Bristol had a smaller team than usual, largely due to the travel distance and the close proximity of the British Games to the World Games earlier in the summer.
Nonetheless a strong team of some 17 team members made the long haul north and we were given a warm welcome by the Scots.
The games began on Thursday and there were medals for the team in Squash and the Archery.
Friday saw more success in the Table Tennis, Ten Pin Bowling and Golf, we were off to a solid start.
We had a new design of medal this year, very heavy and attractive they are too. No doubt this spurred a few people on to even greater efforts as everyone wanted one!
Saturday is a big day, with lots of opportunities for our athletes to medal. We had major success with ten medals in the Badminton alone and then multiple medals in the 3km Walk, Swimming and Mini Marathon.
Sunday is Track and Field day and again our team did us proud with a large haul of medals across all events. We really do have a very strong athletics team these days even with some of our major medallists missing this time.
So the games closed on Sunday evening with the awards night at Ravenscraig Sports Centre. This was ably hosted by Heather Reid OBE the former BBC Scotland weather presenter.
As a team we had no great expectations for awards this time with the team being smaller than usual..however we were in for a major shock !
Remarkably after knocking on the door for several years we have finally won the overall top team award! This is a tremendous achievement for everyone concerned and means we hold the coveted Rosebowl Trophy for the year. Much excitement ensued as you can imagine..we really are the top transplant sport team in the country!
Shortly afterwards Matt Cave was announced as retaining his Best Senior Male trophy.
To cap a truly amazing night Team Manager Catharine Hall was awarded the prestigious Peter Griffin trophy for outstanding lifetime achievement in Transplant Sport.
Catharine celebrates the 37th anniversary of her transplant this month and has competed in 35 British Games and 10 World Games winning over 70 medals in total. A well deserved award.
Such was the success our team table was taken over by large pieces of silverware, we hardly had room for food on the table!
A great games and a fantastic result for the team,well done to all concerned with this remarkable achievement. We won a total of 48 medals, so an average of nearly 3 medals per athlete which is fantastic.
Next year the games go to Birmingham and the aim is to retain our title, it won’t be easy but I believe we can do it!
Bristol Adult Transplant Team
