FISDIR – the Italian Federation of Sports for Intellectual and Relational Disabled – and World Intellectual Impairment Sport – the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability – are proud to announce that the 2016 Inas World Indoor Athletics Championships will take place in Ancona, Italy.

With the local support of Anthropos, one of the 350 team affiliates to FISDIR, Italy will host the prestigious event from 11th to 13th March 2016. The event will take place in the Ancona Palaindoor, the number one indoor athletics complex in Italy. The World Championships will have support from the Marche Region, the Ancona District, the Ancona City and from the Italian Paralympic Committee.

More than 100 athletes will compete in the Championships with Portugal looking to build on their success of eight golds and 25 medals in total at the 2015 European Championships with some more strong performances. They are likely to face tough competition from Poland though who finished top of the 2014 World Championship medal table, in addition to strong teams from France and Russia.

Nelio Piermattei, a member of the local organizing committee and FISDIR Governing Board member said of winning the candidature: “After the success of hosting the 2005 European Championships, Ancona is ready to organize another important event such as the 2016 Inas World Athletic Indoor Championships. The event will be a great opportunity to support the development of sports for intellectually disabled and the spread of the Paralympic culture of integration and socialization. Our thanks goes to the Inas Governing Board for giving us this opportunity, I’m sure that Italy is ready to face this important challenge”.

Nick Parr, Inas Executive Director said “Italy have been great supporters of the Inas sports programme for many years now and with proven success at delivering events, we are excited to be able to award the event to FISDIR. The 2014 World Championships saw 12 different nations winning medals, with the 2016 event looking set to be just as competitive.”

World Intellectual Impairment Sport is delighted to announce the launch of Global ID Sports Day: an opportunity for people around the world to come together to celebrate participation and excellence in sport for people with an intellectual disability.

In its inaugural year the event will take place on Friday 12 June 2015 – exactly 100 days to go until the 2015 World Intellectual Impairment Sport Global Games in Ecuador. The day aims to raise the profile of World Intellectual Impairment Sport, its members and celebrate the success of athletes with an intellectual disability across the world.

World Intellectual Impairment Sport hopes that Global ID Sports Day will become an exciting annual focal point in the calendar using the scale of multiple events and activities to raise awareness, and harness corporate and media support for its members and athletes.

Nick Parr, Executive Director said “As the global governing body for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability, I am delighted that World Intellectual Impairment Sport is launching Global ID Sports Day to recognise and promote opportunities for a group of people that are all too often marginalised and excluded from sport.

We hope that clubs, sports organisations, governments and media around the world will get behind this initiative”

Member nations, athletes, partner organisations and sports fans are encouraged to flood social media with tweets, posts, photos, stories, future event information and excitement about intellectually disabled sport using the handles:

@inassport             #GlobalIDSportDay

“I am proud thahttps://virtus.sport/wp-admin/post.php?post=5977&action=edit#t World Intellectual Impairment Sport is launching Global ID Sport Day. This is a fantastic opportunity to promote sport for athletes with an intellectual disability and to help break down barriers and grow awareness” said World Intellectual Impairment Sport President Amaury Russo.

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The winners of the 1^st World Intellectual Impairment Sport Awards have been revealed in an exciting and emotional ceremony in Sheffield, Great Britain.

In a double sweep for Hong Kong, Ka Man Wong was voted Best Female Athlete whilst teammate Wai Lok Tang took the Best Male Athlete. Ka Man, table tennis, won gold in the 2012 Paralympic Games after winning the Women’s Singles Class 11 and then gold again in the 2014 Asian Para-Games held in Incheon, Korea whilst Wai Lok (17) is a talented swimmer who also competed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games. He took a further silver medal at the 2014 Asian Para Games taking the Asian Record of 200M Freestyle.

He has taken a number of gold medals in World Intellectual Impairment Sport competition and is ranked in the top 3 in both Asian and World competition.

In the Unsung Hero Category, Paul Burns MBE (UK) was the winner. Paul retired as GB Athletics Team Manager in 2014 after 12 years in the role – during which time he coached and managed many GB athletes to international success in World Intellectual Impairment Sport competition.

The final award category was the World Intellectual Impairment Sport Hall of Fame recognizing the lifetime achievement of an individual. In fact, World Intellectual Impairment Sport inducted 3 members – its former Presidents Bernard Atha CBE (UK), Jos Mulder (The Netherlands) and Dr Bob Price (UK) – in hour of their outstanding efforts to promote sport globally for athletes with an intellectual disability.

Amaury Russo, World Intellectual Impairment Sport President, congratulated all the finalists and winners “Sport for athletes with an intellectual disability does not enjoy the same media profile as other areas of para-sport so I am delighted that World Intellectual Impairment Sport has introduced these awards to honour and recognize the outstanding achievements of athletes and those who work behind the scenes”.

The Awards Ceremony coincided with the 2015 World Intellectual Impairment Sport General Assembly and was attended by member organizations and representatives from the Sheffield area, where the organization in registered.

Inas, the International Federation for sport for athletes with an intellectual disability within the Paralympic movement has today announced the shortlisted nominees for the 1^st Inas Awards which take place in April.

The Awards are a new event recognizing the achievements of athletes with an intellectual disability and the many people who support support them.

For ‘Best Male Athlete’, the shortlisted finalists are Lenine Cuhna (Portugal) and Wai Lok Tang (Hong Kong).

Lenine has collected an incredible 163 international medals in a 14 year career and is the World Record holder in both Heptathlon, Indoor Pentahlon and Triple Jump.

 

At 17 years of age, Wai Lok is an established international swimmer holding a number of Asian records including 200m Freestyle.

 

For ‘Best Female Athlete’, the finalists are Bethany Firth (Great Britain) and Ka Man Wong (Hong Kong).

Bethany was a 2012 Paralympic gold-medalist in the 100m Backstroke and competed in the recent Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Ka Man, table tennis, is ranked 7^th in the world and no. 2 in Asia.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 11^th April in Sheffield, UK, where the winner of the ‘Unsung Hero Award’ – an award that recognises the contribution made by volunteers and coaches will also be confirmed.

Finally, Inas will induct its first member to the Inas Hall of Fame which recognises a lifetime achievement in sport for athletes with an intellectual disability.

Amaury Russo, Inas President congratulated the shortlisted finalists. “Over the past few years, the performance of athletes with an intellectual disability has increased significantly and the Inas Awards are a long-overdue recognition of their achievements. I look forward to announcing the winners in April”.

The Awards are the first such event, and are expected to be held every two years to coincide with the Inas General Assembly. More than 14 nominations were received in the first year.