Our Friday Focus this week is on ‘Special Hockey+’, a Spanish Parahockey project that was awarded with the Premio Infanta Sofia!
The King and Queen of Spain presided over the ‘Premios Nacionales del Deporte 2014’, or national sport awards, which are awarded to people or entities that whether through direct action or personal initiative participate in the development of sports, have made an outstanding contribution to promoting and highlight the importance of physical and sporting activity.
The Hockey project ‘Special Hockey+’, a Parahockey endevour was awarded with the Premio Infanta Sofia, an award reserved for those who have made an impactful contribution to promoting and encouraging physical activity, with a focus on disability, whether physical or intellectual.
Present to receive this award were Santiago Deo, President of the Presidente Federación Española de Hockey, Narcis Carrió, President of the Federación Catalana de Hockey, Joaquín Ballesteros and Ignacio Monsalve from Club de Campo, as well as Jordi Lobo, the coordinator of the Special Hockey+ programme, Carmen Hernández, the project’s trainer and one of the players, José Niño. The Spanish ParaHockey national squads were also represented by María Ángeles Ruiz and Bosco Pérez-Pla.
This award is particularly important, as it highlights the efforts made to further ParaHockey in Spain, but it also recognises the great strides that already have been made there. The Spanish ParaHockey team showed their mettle in London, where they were crowned champions of the Developing group at the Euro ParaHockey Championships
The award ceremony was also attended by the Spanish Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, the President of the Spanish Olympic Committee, Alejandro Blanco and the President of the Paralympic Committee Miguel Carballeda.
Video below provided by RFEH, go to minute 5 to see this amazing project being recognised.
We look forward to sharing more exceptional stories on Education and Development in our Friday Focus slot next week!