Congratulations to Rafael Young in winning an award at the 2019 TASS Star Awards. These awards are made to talented athletes in recognition of their achievements in sport and study in the past year. It was great to see one of our boccia players recognised for their efforts

 

Rafael, an Open University student – who accesses support at the University of Manchester – was shortlisted alongside Issa Batrane (beach volleyball) and Joshua Hood (modern pentathlon) in the Most Determined category at this year’s TASS Stars Awards. 

 

In his words, Rafael explained  “Gaining TASS support showed that people were starting to take me seriously. As a result, I started to take myself seriously. I always felt I had the talent and the potential but when I was told that I’d been accepted for TASS support it was a wake-up call. It’s one thing to say that you want to achieve great things and you want to perform on the world stage but when an organisation like TASS puts their faith in you then it’s time to put your money where your mouth is! It was only when I joined the scheme that I started to train harder and really believe in myself. And that delivered predictable results as my performances improved hugely.”