The contract between Inas and the Local Organising Committee of the 2015 Inas Global Games was signed this week in a brief ceremony. The week long event takes place in Guayaquil, Ecuador and features elite sport competition for up to 1000 athletes with an intellectual disability in seven sports.
The contract was signed by Nick Parr, Inas Executive Director and Juan Carlos Araujo, President of the organising committee.
The bid process has opened for the 2015 Inas Conference and General Assembly.
Inas members in good standing are eligible to submit a bid for the event which will take place in April 2015.
Further information, including the bid specification, can be found in the governance section of the website and the closing date for bids is 28th February 2014.
Athletes with an intellectual disability recently met Ecuadorian Minister of Sports, Jose Francisco Cevallos, who following the confirmation that the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador will host the 4th Inas Global Games in 2015.
It is the fourth version of the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games; it will be the first time that this great event is held outside Europe and it will involve eight sports for World Championship (athletics, basketball, cycling, futsal, rowing, swimming, tennis, and tennis table).
Sports Minister, Jose Francisco Cevallos expressed great joy that Ecuador’s bid was the winner and pledged full support from the Government and especially from the Ministry of Sports to begin working immediately. Starting from January 2014, an office in Guayaquil will open in order to centralize the immense work involved in organizing the Games, and he will begin providing financial resources to continue with the organizational processes.
The International Paralympic Committee has confirmed the addition of the 400m to the athletics programme for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
It builds on the 2012 programme which included Long Jump, Shot and 1500m and continues the process of re-inclusion of athletes with an intellectual disability into the Games. The Inas/IPC research group, established in 2007, will be responsible for developing a sports-classification system over the coming months to support inclusion.
Confirmation of an additional swimming event is anticipated shortly.
From Western Magazine, New South Wales:
Twins Bernadette and Eliza-Jane Mills have been named in the Australian Pearls team to contest the World Intellectual Impairment Sport World Basketball Championships in Turkey in October.
The twins, 21, are relative veterans of the team, having played in countless international tournaments.
The Pearls – Australia’s national women’s basketball team for players with an intellectual disability – will head to Turkey ranked number one in the world as a result of gold medals at the 2011 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games and the 2010 World Championships.
Long-serving head coach Larry Davidson has put together a talented side combining international experience and exciting young talent, and will look to the Mills twins to lead by example.
“Both Eliza and Bernie came into the side when they were around 15 or 16,” he said.
“They’re both very experienced and I will look to them to lead.
“Along with the other experienced players, I’d hope they’ll use that experience to guide our younger players around.”
Davidson’s request was justified, the twins believe, conceding the squad’s younger players would be anxious and in need of some guidance.
“They’ll be nervous,” Bernadette said.
“When I first went there I was overwhelmed.
“It’s a different level.”
“We’ll definitely look to help them,” Eliza added.
Davidson also heaped praise on the twins individually, highlighting their dedication as a main factor in their success.
“They’re both very athletic, determined young women,” he said.
“They’re rarely put off by anything, and both really get in and have a go.”
Davidson is under no illusions as to the size of the task facing his team, acknowledging their prospective opponents will be tougher than in previous competitions.
“The problem with playing the European nations is whether they have the money to send teams,” he said
“With the way the economic situation has been recently, when funds were low it has tended to be the women’s teams that get cut.
“But at the moment, it looks like most, if not all, involved nations will send teams.
“This means we’ll have a much tougher task ahead of us than perhaps we have in previous tournaments.
“And with that number one ranking all those teams will be out gunning for us.”
The twins agreed, pinpointing Russia and Japan as the Pearls’ main competition for a second consecutive title.
“Russia will be tough, if they come,” Eliza said.
“Japan too, they’re just little and fast,” Bernadette added.
While not getting ahead of herself Eliza conceded another gold medal is the ultimate goal.
“We’ve got to keep the record going,” she laughed.
“It’ll be tough,” Bernie added.
“But we never get sick of playing for Australia.”
Inas, the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability, has chosen Guayaquil, Ecuador to host the 4th Inas Global Games.
The Games – a week long championship featuring eight sports – is expected to attract more than 1000 of the Worlds elite athlete athletes with an intellectual disability. The opening ceremony will take place on 20th September 2015.
It is the first time the event will have been held outside of Europe, following Sweden, Czech Republic and Italy who have hosted the prestigious event in the past and will take place just a year before the 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil.
Ecuador was chosen ahead of Croatia and Colombia, in a closely fought bidding contest.
Nick Parr, Executive Director at Inas applauded all three bidding nations “The Global Games are the pinnacle event in the Inas calendar and we received three excellent bids. The Governing Board faced a difficult task finding the winner and I would like to congratulate everybody involved in the Ecuador bid on their success – Inas looks forward to a fantastic event in a little over two years time”.
Juan Carlos Araujo, President of Primos Y Primas, the host organisation, was delighted to win the bidding contest “I appreciate the trust Inas has placed in order for Ecuador to become the winning host. We are going to make the 2015 Inas Global Games the most beautiful and successful event ever!”.
The Inas Global Games features World Championship competition in eight sports – athletics, swimming, table tennis, rowing, basketball, futsal, tennis and cycling. A decision regarding the inclusion of any demonstration sports will be taken shortly.
Taking place just a year ahead of the Paralympic Games in 2016, it will be a fantastic opportunity for athletes aiming for qualification to Rio.
Great Britain finished last week’s 5th World Intellectual Impairment Sport World Tennis Championships with an historic haul of three gold medals, as well as a silver and a bronze, after victories in the men’s singles and doubles finals capped a fantastic week for the Brits at the competition in Rakovnik, Czech Republic.
Great Britain had never won a medal at the event before but that changed when Fabrice Higgins finished as a triple world champion after winning gold in the men’s singles, men’s doubles and the team event.
With Chorley’s Higgins and Cheltenham’s Thomas Mellor having set up an all-British men’s singles final earlier in the week, their wait to decide the gold and silver medals ended in a 6-1, 6-0 victory for Higgins.
Higgins made another piece of history earlier in the week in his men’s singles semi-final after becoming the first player to ever beat the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Sedlisky in singles competition at an World Intellectual Impairment Sport event.
Mellor added his silver medal in the men’s singles to the gold medal he won alongside Higgins earlier in the week when they beat Australia’s leading players in both the semi-finals and final of the team event.
And Higgins claimed his third gold medal of the World Championships with another victory over Australian opposition when he partnered Birkenhead’s Peter Millar to beat Joshua Holloway and Mitchell James 7-5, 6-1 in the men’s doubles final.
“It was an incredible experience playing for Great Britain and it still hasn’t sunk in yet that I have won three gold medals. I have met lots of new friends who I hope to see again in future events and I have loved every second of it,” said Higgins.
“I enjoyed everything about this week taking part in the World Intellectual Impairment Sport World Championships in the Czech Republic. It was great meeting so many new people in tennis and I really enjoyed playing both singles and doubles as part of the GB team. I would like to say thank you to the Tennis Foundation and UK Sports Association for supporting us as we had great preparation for the event and I’m sure that helped us do so well,” added Millar.
Millar gained more success in the men’s consolation singles after beating Italy’s Antonio Catalano 6-4, 6-1. It was Millar’s second consolation singles win in an World Intellectual Impairment Sport event in three years after he also won the men’s consolation at the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games in Italy in 2011. Millar was presented with a gold medal for his efforts, while fellow Brit Shain Lewis won the bronze medal for finishing third in the consolation singles.
Lewis and Mellor came close to another medal in the men’s doubles, but were beaten 6-1 in the bronze medal play-off by Australia’s Damien Phillips and Zvi Schweitzer.
“I’m extremely proud of the whole team, having worked with them closely in the build-up to the World Intellectual Impairment Sport World Championships,” said Team Manager Lesley Whitehead. “All the boys have done superbly and have all played a big part in what has been a historic week for British tennis in World Intellectual Impairment Sport competition. Hopefully this is just the beginning of more success to come at this level of competition.”
Results of the event can be found here.
Inas has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the World Taekwondo Federation – the international governing body for Taekwondo.The agreement aims to develop new disciplines of Para-Taekwondo, focusing on Taekwondo Poomsae (a series of postures and movements of the technical forms of taekwondo skills).
President Chungwon Choue announced “I am proud to announce that the WTF signed an MOU with the International Sport Federation for Para-Athletes with Intellectual Disability to work together to include new competitors and disciplines into Para-Taekwondo.
“Para-taekwondo is fast becoming a popular sport globally and it is testament to how far the sport has spread since the inaugural World Championships in 2009 that the 59 medals handed out at the tournament were distributed amongst 20 different countries.”
In the MOU’s, both organisations agree:
On the new partnerships with Inas, WTF Secretary General Jean-Marie Ayer added ““Organizations such as World Intellectual Impairment Sport provide extraordinary pathways towards sport for those who have intellectual and neurological differences. I believe our next steps are working with both of these great new partners to develop grass-roots programs to nurture new disciplines within taekwondo.”
The 9th Inas World Athletics Championships began on schedule yesterday, despite the extensive flooding faced by host city Prague (Czech Republic) in recent days.
The first gold went to Ryo Kaneko (Japan) who took the 10,000m title in a time of 33m 15 seconds.
Around 150 athletes representing 22 nations are competing at the event which runs until Saturday.
For results, photos and video of the event, visit the event website.
Inas is aware of the developing situation in Prague, Czech Republic which is under threat from extensive flooding. The city is due to host the 2013 Inas World Athletics Championships with teams departing for Czech Republic in the coming days.
Inas is in contact with the local organising committee and we will keep you informed of any developments that may affect the safe and successful running of the event. We will take advice from the organisers and any decision regarding the event will be taken as soon as possible.
We advise all teams to check the Inas website (www.inas.org) and the event website (www.prague2013.org) regularly.
Inas extends its best wishes to the people of Prague as it deals with this threat over the coming days.
Update 13.30GMT 4.6.2013
The organisers of the Inas World Athletics Championships have given re-assurance that the venue, hotel and airport are all unaffected by the ongoing flooding in the centre of Prague, and anticipate that the event will go ahead as planned.
Teams are advised to continue to plan their travel accordingly, but should seek the advice of their own national authorities.
Inas will continue to monitor the situation and liaise with local organisers, and will inform members should there be any change.
Virtus is the brand name of the International Sports Federation for athletes with intellectual impairment and is a founding member of the International Paralympic Committee. Registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in the UK (1173901)
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