Today, delegations from across the World begin to return home following their participation in the 2015 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games.

Over the past week, Ecuador has witnessed some fantastic performances from the world’s best athletes with an intellectual disability.

Almost 600 athletes from 32 nations competed in the 4^th edition of the Games which included competition in athletics, basketball, cycling, futsal, indoor rowing, swimming, table tennis, tennis and – for the first time in the Games – Taekwondo.

We would like to congratulate all athletes on a fantastic week of sport.

However, away from the field of play, delivery of the Games has been beset by multiple and substantial problems following the collapse of the host organisation and Local Organising Committee (LOC), the Federación Ecuatoriana de Deportes para personas con Discapacidad Intelectual (FEDEDI) who were contractually responsible for the full financing and delivery of the Games.

With support from the World Intellectual Impairment Sport team together with incredible efforts of delegations, officials, technical staff and more – competition began as planned on Tuesday 22^nd September. However on that same morning, the LOC informed World Intellectual Impairment Sport that they were no longer in a financial position to deliver the Games through to their conclusion on Sunday 27^th September.

Despite our extensive efforts to get competition underway, the Games were once again threatened.

The World Intellectual Impairment Sport Governing Board met and agreed that in the interests of the organisation and most importantly the athletes we represent, the 4^th Global Games must continue. All 32 delegations present have worked tirelessly to secure the funding to enable their participation in the Games and athletes have trained hard to qualify and compete. The World Intellectual Impairment Sport Governing Board was determined that this would not be denied.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport therefore immediately assumed a full operational delivery role and began to put in place strategies to ensure successful delivery of the full competition programme. However with such a fundamental failure of the LOC, this was both difficult and at substantial cost to World Intellectual Impairment Sport.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport also requested the intervention of the Ecuadorian Sports Ministry who immediately began to assemble a team to help support the operational delivery of the Games but also assist World Intellectual Impairment Sport to more fully understand the circumstances surrounding the catastrophic failure of the LOC.

At times it seemed the mission to deliver the Games was impossible – such was the level of failure of the LOC – but on Saturday 26^th September (following some small programming changes) competition across the entire programme came to its successful conclusion.

This was a remarkable achievement and was only possible thanks to the combined efforts of so many people. World Intellectual Impairment Sport is indebted to every single person who supported the Games this week in whatever their capacity. To all of these people, we thank you on behalf of the delegations present and all elite athletes with an intellectual disability.

We particularly thank the Ecuadorian Sports Ministry for their involvement and assistance. Without this help the Games simply would not have been possible.

In the days, weeks and months ahead there will be much analysis of the 4^th World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games. World Intellectual Impairment Sport is already taking legal advice in respect of the failure of the Local Organising Committee, the circumstances surrounding the host organisation (FEDEDI) and in particular, the actions of its President, Juan Carlos Araujo.

As delegations begin to leave Ecuador, we want to thank you for your participation in these Games. To the medal winners and all the athletes, we congratulate you on your performances, and to our many friends who made these Games possible in the most difficult of circumstances we say thank you.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport will continue and will grow stronger, and in just 4 years time, we look forward to the opening ceremony of the 5^th World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games in Brisbane, Australia.

Yesterday marked the first day of competitions at the Ecuador 2015 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games. Cycling, Futsal, Tennis and Basketball events took place and the Games had its first medallists on the Cycling Team Time Trial event; France and its athletes M. Collin and J. Pereira took the highest spot on the podium, followed by D. Merten and J. Duinkerke representing Holland, and E. Sarango and A. Jacome snapped the last chance for medals taking the 3^rd place.

Basketball competition was packed with emotions delivered by the Portuguese and Venezuelan teams. This was the opening game in the men’s competition and from the get go a very enthusiastic Venezuelan squad was able to cause some troubles for Portugal in the first quarter and they went into the break winning 13 – 10. Nonetheless, Portugal was able to come back in the game and was able to take the lead 35 – 32 after the 3^rd quarter. But in the last interval of the game a highly spirited Venezuelan team was able to gain a break with 3 minutes left on the clock and took the lead which they held on to win 43 – 37.

Also, other competitions that took place on Day 1 were Futsal and Tennis which will carry on today along with Basketball and the beginning of competitions for Athletics. Cycling will take a short break today to get back in action tomorrow, as will Swimming but with its first day of competitions at the Diana Quintana Sport Club.

More results and information about the events competitions coming ahead, so make sure to check our social media portals.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2015 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games in Ecuador is less than 3 weeks away. More than two and a half years of planning culminates with more than 650 athletes from 35 nations competing in 9 sports.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport would like to express its deepest gratitude to all athletes and teams for supporting this event, and wish you every success in competition.

However, nations will also be aware that in recent days, the Cotopaxi Volcano – located around 30 miles from Quito – began to show signs of an eruption. Ash and gasses were sent up in to the air and these reached areas of the city. The Ecuadorian Government has declared a state of emergency and the region is preparing for a full eruption. (Daily updates regarding the volcano are available in Spanish and English at: https://www.seguridad.gob.ec/category/comunicamos/noticias/)

Since the volcano became active, World Intellectual Impairment Sport has been liaising with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and taking advice from the Ecuadorian Government, Institute of Geophysics and the various embassies to assess the impact on the event.

Whilst no-one can give a definitive assessment of what will happen, activity at the volcano has been increasing and is now continuous. There is an expectation that the volcano will erupt in the days, weeks or months ahead and were this to happen, the impact on the area will be significant. Masks would need to be worn, air and road travel will be disrupted, and major venues – including those being used to host the Global Games – would be required by the authorities to house the many people who must be relocated.

Whilst World Intellectual Impairment Sport wishes to do everything possible to ensure the Games are successful, the safety and health of athletes, team staff, officials and supporters is paramount.

At greatest risk, due to their close proximity to the volcano, are the venues for athletics and table tennis which are due to be held in Latacunga – a town situation in the foothills of the volcano. However the LOC has advised that there will also be widespread disruption (including risk to health) from airborne ashes and gasses across Quito – and that safety cannot be assured.

The World Intellectual Impairment Sport Governing Board have therefore concluded that it is left with no choice but to authorise the LOC to relocate events to venues away from Quito and outside the area of influence and danger of the volcano.

Consequently, the LOC have today confirmed that athletics will now take place in Guaranda, swimming and basketball will take place in Guayaquil and table tennis will take place in Cuenca.

The venue of other sports will be confirmed within the next few days and are expected to be in the Guayaquil/Cuenca area. At this time we expect all sports to take place as planned and venues for athletics and swimming have been chosen which are IAAF/FINA certified respectively in order that IPC classification/sanction is preserved.

These changes do of course impact upon team planning. Most significantly, the LOC request that flights should be re-arranged to arrive directly into Guayaquil airport. Please contact your airline to discuss this change immediately. You should also plan for teams to be separated across 3 venue areas.

Where it is not possible to re-arrange flights, please contact the LOC at global.games@inas.org for advice or to make alternative arrangements for onward travel from Quito airport.

Arrival/Departure and ceremony dates all remain the same, accommodation options are being secured and you will be accommodated in a standard of hotel as similar as possible to that which was requested in Quito, and transport between the various venues is also being organised.

This has been a very unique and difficult situation that has changed daily. We realise the significant inconvenience and disruption that these changes might cause for your team, however you will appreciate and agree that the health and safety of delegations should be our foremost concern.

We will of course keep teams up to date with further information at the earliest opportunity however if you are concerned or have questions, then please contact the organisers (global.games@inas.org) or World Intellectual Impairment Sport (enquiries@inas.org) and we will try to assist as quickly as possible.

Finally, it is also critical that your final team entry details/payments are submitted to the LOC as soon as possible. Accommodation cannot be secured if payment has not been received, and competitions/classification schedules cannot be completed without full athlete information.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to Ecuador in a few short weeks. Please can we ask for your patience and understanding in the days ahead as the LOC make their final preparations, and we thankyou for your help to make the 2015 Global Games a huge success.

20th of August marks one month to go until the opening ceremony of the 2015 Ecuador World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games – the world’s largest elite sporting event for athletes with an intellectual disability.

Registration for the Games closed on the 31st of July with 35 countries confirming their participation in this pinnacle event of the World Intellectual Impairment Sport calendar.

These include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Japan, Macau, Mauritius, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, USA and Venezuela.

The event features top-level competition in nine sports (athletics, basketball, cycling, futsal, swimming, rowing, table tennis, tennis and taekwondo) and will take place from the 20th to the 27th of September in Quito, Ecuador. Around 700 athletes are expected to compete.

The opening ceremony will take place on Sunday 20th of September and aims to get people from all ages to get involved and make of this gathering a sport celebration that will be held for the first time in a South American country.

Hartmut Freund (Germany) is one of the athletes who has qualified for the Games. He is Germany’s sole participant to the event, and is national Table Tennis champion in the Class 11 (intellectual disability). “Table tennis is his life and the Global Games is a great adventure for him” says guardian and coach Norbert Freund. “Due to no financial support he is largely dependent on sponsors, family and his idol – German table tennis star Dimitrij Ovtcharov – who has kindly supported his international competitions”.

Planning for the Games has been hampered in recent days by activity at the Cotopaxi Volcano – located around 35 miles to the south of Quito – and whilst World Intellectual Impairment Sport has confirmed that it expects the event to go ahead as planned, an announcement will be made in the coming days regarding athletics and table table which were due to be held in the town of Latacunga, located close to the volcano.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport President, Amaury Russo, is looking ahead to the Games. “Despite the complications of the past few days, I believe we can look forward to an exceptional event in Quito next month, and it will be an exciting preview to some of those athletes seeing qualification to the Rio Paralympics just a year from now.

To mark the 1st Global ID Sport Day, World Intellectual Impairment Sport is proud to announce a partnership with WGT Sport as their preferred travel supplier.

As an international charity running more than 15 Championship competitions across the globe every year, World Intellectual Impairment Sport depends on reliable and efficient travel planning.

As a specialist partner of British Airways and with good contacts with other hotels and airlines, WGT Sport are able to source the most cost-effective travel options for World Intellectual Impairment Sport, our member organisations and athletes. They ensure that every trip is well-planned, meets our requirements and, should anything unexpected happen, are on hand to find a solution.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport and WGT Sport Ltd have worked together over the past year and we are delighted to formalise this partnership as preferred supplier for travel management. In addition, for every booking WGT Sport will make a donation to World Intellectual Impairment Sport.

Phillip Betts, Managing Director of WGT Sports said “I am very pleased that WGT Sport Ltd has become a preferred supplier of travel management for World Intellectual Impairment Sport. We are delighted to support athletes with an intellectual disability through our excellent service, as well as make a financial contribution to support their work”.

To make a booking with WGT Sport Ltd contact them quoting World Intellectual Impairment Sport02 on +44 845 50 50 175 or by email to info@wgtsport.com or visit their website www.wgtsport.org.