Athletes welcomed to County Hall to mark sporting achievements

Carmarthenshire County Council chair Cllr Tyssul Evans has held a reception for 14 Carmarthenshire athletes who have achieved great success at the GB National Summer Games – a sports competition for learning disabled athletes across the country.

The athletes were invited to County Hall for the reception to mark their achievements in the eighth summer games, when many excelled in their sports fields to clinch a host of gold, silver and bronze medals.

In golf, Matthew Sims, Mark Merret, Phil Rees, Gary Pugh, Lewis Jones, Roger Thomas, David Edwards and James Hope took three golds, one silver, and one bronze, as well as one fourth placing and a fifth placing.

In Kayaking, Robert Phibben took a silver medal and one fourth place position, and Stephen Beynon took two bronze medals and one fourth place position.

Llinos Gilmore Jones took two golds in ten pin bowling, and Richard Evans took a bronze medal in judo.
In Boccia, Rhian David won a team Gold medal and was placed in sixth place in the individual rankings, Ann Vaughn won a team Gold medal and was placed fourth place individually, and Amy Davies won a silver medal in the individual event and took fourth place in the team event. Finally, Rhydian Davies took a Boccia team Gold and individual bronze, and Michael Beynon won an individual silver and was placed fourth place in the team event.

Council chair Cllr Tyssul Evans said: “It was a great honour to invite these talented athletes to County Hall to show our respect for their great achievements and to let them know that they have done our county proud.

“They, and their coaches, have trained tremendously hard to achieve these fantastic results on a national level – and I wish them all the best for future games where I’m sure they will continue to achieve.”

The Carmarthenshire athletes were among almost two and a half thousand learning disabled athletes from across Great Britain who competed at the games week, held in Leicester in July.

They were joined at the opening ceremony by Rt honourable Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown, and Tim Shriver, Chairman of Special Olympics and son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver who founded Special Olympics in the USA in the 1960's. They were also joined by Chairman of Special Olympics GB Lowri McMenemy MBE, and Games Patron Martin Johnson.

Photograph: Members of the British Special Olympics team are welcomed to County Hall by chair Cllr Tyssul Evans