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The Australian team proudly walks out into the Sydney Superdome at the Opening Ceremony. This is the first official ceremony at this venue. The team consists of amputee and limb deficient athletes.
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The Australian team proudly walks out into the Sydney Superdome at the Opening Ceremony. This is the first official ceremony at this venue. The team consists of amputee and limb deficient athletes.
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This tournament hosted 17 sports and included Wheelchair, Amputee, Blind, Cerebral Palsy and Les Autre athletes. Athletes with an Intellectual Disability, Deaf and Transplant athletes also competed by invitation.
There were 23 countries, 2000 athletes and over 2000 volunteers involved in this major event.
Usually these championships are the Nationals for Disabled athletes but this year the Sitting Volleyball tournament was a sanctioned event for the Asia and Oceania Zone. The results would see 2 countries qualifying for the Paralympics 2000.
Congratulations to Japan and Korea who gained these positions and will visit us in Australia in October for the Paralympics.
A Referee Clinic was conducted by Mr Gaby Lotan from Israel during this tournament with 6 Australians qualifying as Candidate Referees, the first in the country.
RESULTS
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Extract from WOVD Report
"A very high level could be seen in the four teams. Australia, playing for less than two years and with very few training possibilities, has shown that they can be one of the teams to lead in the next future. Their players have learned quite more than the basics.
China also showed what a good training policy can do. Their coach was awarded with the medal to best coach although they finished the competition in the third place.
For the final we had a very interesting game between Japan and Korea. Both were the teams that qualified for the Paralympics, but their game was as if only one of them could take the place. After a first set for Korea, Japan won the next three sets, so they got the Gold Medal."
