LIGHTNING STRIKES TWICE!
COMMUNITY - 2 MINUTE READ
Loughborough’s Wheelchair Basketball team ‘Loughborough Lightning’ have officially made history by winning back-to-back titles in their second season of the British Wheelchair Basketball Women’s Premier League. May 2023 saw the team play the National Championship Finals in Manchester, securing a win against East London Phoenix with a score of 75-47, live on the BBC.
In another stand out season for the team, they showed off their incredible ability and will to win with a near perfect season, recording just one loss.
The hardest thing in sport is staying at the top with a big target on your back. The girls have worked so hard all year, through the highs and some lows, and I’m so proud of how the team have performed. It’s a special group of experienced athletes and others that are less experienced. It’s proved to be the perfect blend to achieve what we have this campaign.
George Bates
Head Coach, Loughborough Lightning
The Women’s Premier League is not only the first para-sport professional league in the UK but also the first of its kind (in the world!) for women’s Wheelchair Basketball. The league was created as a vital part of British Wheelchair Basketball’s five-year plan to increase participation in the sport and develop a world-class high-performance system.
Loughborough Lightning are not only proving their skills domestically, but they’re also representing their nations internationally. Three athletes from the squad were selected to represent Great Britain in the IWBF World Championships this June. Lucy Robinson and Siobhan Fitzpatrick, two of the recruits, have previous international experience, but Maddie Martin made her Team GB debut.
Incredibly, it was Bo Kramer of the Loughborough Lightning squad who helped The Netherlands achieve their back-to-back World Championship Title. But it’s not only the players who are achieving incredible feats with George Bates, Head Coach of Loughborough Lightning, announcing his appointment as Head Coach of the Team GB’s Wheelchair Basketball team for the upcoming Invictus Games.
Computacenter, as proud headline sponsors of the Loughborough Lightning team, have recently extended our partnership with Loughborough Sport as of November 2022. This partnership not only includes the Wheelchair Basketball team, but also the elite-level female Lightning Netball, Lightning Cycling teams and Loughborough’s Cycling Academy.
Our partnership aims to not only inspire, train, educate, coach, and motivate our Computacenter employees but also encourage exemplary Loughborough students into our incredible graduate schemes.
The partnership with Loughborough Lightning also perfectly aligns with our core values of inclusivity and diversity here at Computacenter. Robyn Love, captain of the Loughborough Lightning wheelchair basketball team, recently spoke about the importance of having visible disabled and LGBTQ+ role models, tweeting: “Wow... I made the Independent 'The Pride List 2023' I'm incredibly humbled to be included in this list of role models & activists. People with disabilities have always been at the forefront of the LGBTQ+ movement & I'm grateful to be part of it.”