Junior Disability Games 2016

St Peters School, Cambridge was an impressive venue for the 2016 Junior Disability Games.

The outstanding Robb Sports Centre had featured previously as host venue for the TTNZ Nationals in 2007.

This was the first year for table tennis to be involved; as a demonstration sport this time.

We were lucky to have a superb support team assembled for a busy two hours.

Sarah Sandley took time out from her role with Aktive to conduct classification assessments.  This allows the participants details and provisional classifications to be entered into the TTNZ database.  These players can now enter tournaments, with tournament organisers having advance knowledge of their playing capability, for organising draws.

National Para Coach, John Tuki ran a multi-ball table with individual tuition.  Coaching Course Presenter, Jessica Macaskill ran the Stag Robot, to the pleasure and enlightenment of participants.

Christine Young and Paul Henderson expertly ran two ambulant coaching tables, while John Lea ran the fifth table for doubles tuition.

Max Henderson and Xavier Lea assisted in collating player details, and handing out a Stag bat to each participant.

There were short competitions at the end of the two hour session.  The Robot Skills session winners were Rachel Harvie and Asher Hovell, both from Northland.

The 5-point challenge was won by Guy Harrison from Hawkes Bay after a closely fought round-robin contest.  There was a 3-way tie for runner-up between Jack Lewington of Wellington, and Cantabrian brothers Celyn and Ieuan Edwards.

Amongst the most impressive players was Nathaniel Singleton, a wheelchair player from Northland, with a very crisp drive.  Another to impress was yet another Northlander, Joshua Lilburn, who took out the Cup for 'Best Attitude'.

Thanks go to John Sigurdson and Cherryl Thompson from Parafed for giving table tennis this opportunity.  We are keen to be a full competition sport next year.