The London Elephants goalball club has rocketed in both interest and ability in the past few months.

As London’s one and only goalball club, The London Elephants, based at The Castle Centre in Southwark, has attracted many visually impaired players from all over the capital and beyond, some members even making the trip from as far away as Brighton every fortnight.

The club recently welcomed new coach, former Team GB Men’s Assistant Coach, Alex Bunney and with help from Alex and the incredible club volunteers Sky and Joe, the Elephants have had a surge of interest amongst the visually impaired community. The training sessions every fortnight have created an incredibly friendly club atmosphere and in December the Elephants entered their first competitive tournament.

Team members’ Dan, Naqi and Jess and team manager, Sky headed to Birmingham where the team had a strong start, winning their first game against the local side, before another win, this time a fantastic 11 – 4 win over the Beacon Bullets. The next couple of games got trickier as the team came away with a solid draw against Winchester and an unfortunate loss against eventual winners, The Royal National College for the Blind’s Goalball Academy. 

However, their brilliant game play, team work and efforts earned them a third place finish overall out of nine teams! An incredible achievement by the ‘’the country’s newest club’’ in their very first tournament, especially making their medal earning debut at an intermediate level!

Since their success, the Ignite programme at Access Sport has assisted in providing the London Elephants with an official team kit and have continued to support the club, together with Goalball UK, in raising awareness of the visually impaired sports on offer in London!

 

Check out the London Elephants’ recent appearance on BBC News London!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08bc0b3/london-news-lunchtime-news-23012017

(Only available for 28 days)