“I'm thrilled to have achieved this record, but it will take a while to sink in,” Mark Threadgold said. "I was a bit nervous beforehand but things couldn't have gone more smoothly."

British diver Mark Threadgold has set a new world record for the deepest dive attempted by a blind person after reaching 103 metres in the Egyptian Red Sea.

The 38-year-old former soldier from Brighton beat his previous record by more than 30 metres at the Blue Hole dive site of Dahab (Egypt) on June 16, 2006.

The International Blind Sports Federation (I.B.S.A.) has expressed delight at being awarded U.E.F.A.'s (Union of European Football Association) €650,000 ( Rupees 51,350000) charity cheque for 2006.

In a statement U.E.F.A. said, “Its support confirms the leading role of I.B.S.A. in developing football and other sports for blind and partially sighted people, as well as the federation's position as one of the most active players in sports for people with disabilities."

In U.K., a visually impaired woman undertook an amazing challenge. Martine Brooks, 56, drove eight miles along the Great Barford bypass, in Bedfordshire, with the Mayor of Bedford, Frank Branston, in the back. Brooks’ friend and navigator Steve Clarke challenged her to do so. What next? Branston agreed to accompany her on the ride. What’s more, it was aimed to raise £5,000 (approximately Rupees 3,95,000) for Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, U.K., on its 75th anniversary.

Visual impairment can lead to isolation and lack of social contact. Sport has been found to be the ideal antidote to this. Ten-pin bowling enthusiast Jo Dixon, a member of a blind ten-pin bowling team, claims that the sport has turned her life around.

Dixon, along with other members of a bowling team from British Blind Sports, joined hands with, U.K. charity, The Cambridgeshire Society for the blind and partially sighted (Cam Sight) to organise ten-pin bowling sessions for visually impaired people in Cambridge, in January.

Jamaica defeated hosts Barbados to win the first ever ‘Regional Blind Cricket Championship’, recently.

In the finals, played at the Carlton Sports Club, Jamaica made 196 for five wickets from 27.1 overs in reply to the Barbados total of 192 for seven from their allotted 35 overs. "It was worked out, it was planned, we just did to Barbados what had to be done to make us champions," said the winning coach Vivalyn Lattie-Scott.