Paralympics Games kick off

MOSAH MOKGANEDI
Correspondent | Friday November 12, 2010 00:00

 

The Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Shaw Kgathi will officiate at the opening ceremony, which will be immediately followed by the athletics competitions. Ball games will start tomorrow.

The games have attracted 300 athletes from across the country who will be battling it out in football for the visually-impaired as well as for the deaf, netball, basketball and wheel-chair basketball.

PASSOBO secretary general Tendani Magazine and an official from the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) will grace the event. Magazine said the competition will be used to select a team for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Magazine said they expect a competitive event as they tried to choose the best athletes from last year's competition.

She said there were no regional games this year due to financial constraints but promised that the association will thrive to hold them next year.

She said they face problems in staging competitions especially where many children are involved because they do not have enough qualified personnel in disability sports. 'But with the help of the Botswana National Sports Council (BNSC), we will manage,' she said.

The national games were postponed from July because of lack of funds. 'We have so far managed to raise the needed money and we are hopeful that we will host successful games,' Magazine said. She encouraged parents to come in large numbers to come and witness that indeed disability is not inability. 'They should not just hear us talking about them in the media, they should come and watch the games,' Magazine said. There will also be a raffle draw at the games where two Isuzu cars stand to be won. Standard Chartered Bank together with PASSOBO have sponsored the games.