A message from National Coach Steve Glasson to the Vision-Impaired sporting community
Bowls Australia’s National Coach Steve Glasson OAM is calling for Vision-Impaired athletes from across all sports to consider taking up the sport of bowls and aspiring to compete at the next Commonwealth Games.
Is a Commonwealth Games gold medal on your bucket list?
Australia earned and enjoyed its greatest ever Commonwealth Games performance at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games earlier this year and one sport proved to be a shining light when it came to vision-impaired competition, and that was lawn bowls.
For Lynne Seymour and her Director (& husband) Bob, along with Jake Fehlberg and his Director (& father) Grant, it was a glorious campaign, collecting a coveted gold medal in the Vision-Impaired pairs discipline.
These very humble and down to earth competitors can fondly enjoy and reminisce about their many sublime results over their career, which have included local, national and international titles, but speak to either of them and I’m sure you will find, by a country mile, the unquestionable highlight is the Commonwealth Games gold.
Now, with all that said, that’s potentially where YOU come into play!
Vision-Impaired athletes regularly crossover with other sports, with many participants playing numerous targeted elite vision-impaired sports, often with great success and joy.
While we celebrate our current Commonwealth Games gold medallists, we also look to the future.
It’s reasonable to suggest with Birmingham, UK being the 2022 Commonwealth Games venue, we need to not only ensure bowls’ current established Vision-Impaired players are committed to defending their crown, but also look at the potential for participants to crossover from other sports into bowls spotlight.
There are opportunities for those with a vision impairment to engage in our friendly, competitive and high-performance sport, and do so with great success.
I believe it very realistic to envisage that with four years to go before the next Games, a successful crossover from another sport is achievable.
I encourage you, as a vision-impaired athlete looking for opportunities to compete on the sporting world stage, to consider bowls and to reach out to Bowls Australia’s High Performance team.
Steve Glasson OAM
Bowls Australia – National Coach
If you, or a vision-impaired athlete you know, are interested in learning more about Vision-Impaired elite bowls, please contact:
Peter Brown
Bowls Australia – High Performance & Pathways Manager
03 9480 7100
pbrown@bowls.com.au
