The South African Sports Association for the Intellectually Impaired (SASA-II) on Monday announced that 750 athletes with intellectual impairments would compete in the annual National South African Summer Age Group Games for the Intellectually Impaired, which will be held in the Eastern Cape in March.
SASA-II announced that the Eastern Cape Sport Association for the Intellectually Impaired would host 750 athletes who each have an intellectual impairment and who come from all nine provinces in South Africa.
The athletes will gather in Port Elizabeth for the Summer Games which would also see selected athletes being chosen for international participation later in the year.
SASA-II national president Lizzie Vogel said: “A number of national teams will be announced during the Summer Games for international participation later in 2016.”
Vogel said SASA-II was proud to announce a new partnership with Lulamisa Community Development Organisation as this meant that “more athletes will get the opportunity to compete as it is development year in all sporting codes”.
She said this meant that “during a development year we focus on giving multiple athletes, in additional age groups, the opportunity to take part [in sports] on a national level”.
Vogel said SASA-II is a member of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) and Inas (International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability) and adheres to an international definition of intellectual disability that is recognised by the United Nations World Health Organisation.
The athletes, Vogel said, would participate in six sport codes, namely swimming, cricket, hockey, table tennis, blackball pool and indoor rowing.
She said she was excited about the high calibre of athletes in the disability sporting sector and said: “At the end of March, the cross country team will go to the USA to compete in the World Cross Country Championship in New York.”
She added: “In July, swimmers, athletes, futsal players, tennis players and table tennis players with Down syndrome will participate in the first Trisome Games in Italy. Europe will be host to a few more of our teams, as there is also an athletics event in Turkey, blackball pool in Ireland and the World Half Marathon in Portugal on our schedule for 2016.”
She mentioned that several athletes who have Down Syndrome would be competing in the swimming and table tennis events as part of their preparations for the upcoming Trisome World Championship, “the first national event in South Africa to be sanctioned by Inas”.
Vogel said she was excited that the event would take place in Port Elizabeth, a city that has a rich sporting history. She said that some of the Summer Games events would take place at several of the city’s sport venues such as the Gelvandale Cricket Club, Malabar Community Centre, Lilian Ngoyi Sport Centre, Happydale Special School, Kwamagxaki Cricket Club, Dan Qeqe Stadium and the Westbourne Oval among others.
National sports convenor and member of the National Executive Committee of SASA-II, Kenneth Kubayi, visited the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro during February to inspect the venues. Kubayi said he was “impressed by the high standard of venues acquired by National Cricket Convenor Ernest Fiki and that our athletes deserve nothing less”.
The National South African Summer Age Group Games for the Intellectually Impaired 2016 will take place in Port Elizabeth from March 7-11 March, 2016.
– African News Agency (ANA)
