13th January 2023
A Barking & Dagenham College student is going to Australia this month, to play in the inaugural PWII, part of the Australian Open.
Olly Beadle, who studies Esports at the College, was invited to play in the inaugural PWII (People with Intellectual Impairments) tennis competition, after the organisers looked at players international ratings. He will be taking part in the men’s singles and doubles events, which will be held at Melbourne Park.
Olly has been playing tennis since he was seven years old, and trains at least four times a week, as well as playing in competitions. He is also part of the LTA’s national learning disability squad and regularly trains with the GB team.
The news follows a string of successes for Olly, who represented Great Britain at the INAS (now Virtus) Global Games in Brisbane in November 2019, where he came 4th in the world, at the age of 20! He also won a silver medal in the mens’ team events at these games. In 2021, he won the National Learning Disability event in both singles and doubles and last year, in November, he won silver in the singles National Learning Disability Competition and gold in the mens’ doubles.
Commenting on the news, Olly said: “I’m honoured and super excited to have been invited to take part in the inaugural PWII event at the Australian Open and to be able to travel and compete in Australia again.”
