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12 Mar 2010
Swimming New Zealand
The Swimming New Zealand Awards will be held in Auckland on Saturday 10^th April 2010. The finalists for these awards have been announced, with Paralympics New Zealand swimmers and coaches featuring in three categories.

6. Swimmer of the Year with a Disability
Cameron Leslie, Sophie Pascoe, Daniel Sharp

11. Personality of the Year
Cameron Leslie, Sophie Pascoe, Penelope Marshall

12. Coach of the Year
Simon Mayne, Sue Southgate, Scott Talbot

The winners from categories 1-6 will become finalists in the major award, the Swimming New Zealand Swimmer of the Year.

The full list of finalists can be found by visiting www.swimmingnz.org.nz


11 Mar 2010
Paralympics New Zealand Newsletter
The latest Paralympics New Zealand Newsletter is now available.

   PNZ Newsletter - March 2010


07 Mar 2010
Results - 2010 Canterbury Track & Field Championships
The Canterbury Track & Field Championships were held at QEII Park, Christchurch from the 5th - 7th March 2010.

A summary of the AWD results are below. For a complete set of results visit www.athleticscanterbury.org.nz.

06 Mar 2010
Results - Para Cycling Track National Championship
The Para Cycling Track National Championships were held at the ILT Velodrome, Invercargill from the 1st - 6th March 2010.

A summary of the AWD results are below. For a complete set of results visit www.bikenz.org.nz.

05 Mar 2010
World Record Sparks National Age Group & Disabled Swimming Championships
North Shore swimmer Rebecca Dubber set a world record on the penultimate day of the Mayfair Pools New Zealand Age Group & Disabled Swimming Championships in Christchurch tonight.

The 16 year old clocked 11:21.66 in the 800m freestyle which is unofficially well inside the previous record of 11:36.43 for S7 classification swimmers, with the record still to be ratified.

That was not the only highlight of the fourth day, with star of the championships, Sophia Batchelor adding a further two national age group records to her burgeoning list.

Batchelor, who swims for the Aqua Gym club in Christchurch under coach Leanne Speechly, took her tally to six with new records in the 50m backstroke and 100m butterfly for girls 14 years.

She was the only swimmer under the 30 second barrier in winning the 50m backstroke in 29.81 which was half a second inside her own national mark.

Batchelor also clocked 1:02.60 to win the 100m butterfly, edging her previous record by 25/100ths of a second.

The fastest in the 100m butterfly was Ashburton’s Josie Kydd who won the 15 years honours in 1:01.85.

For a complete set of results visit www.swimmingnz.org.nz.


04 Mar 2010
Tandem Tumbles Record
Nearly 200 riders have flocked to the deep south for the RaboPlus Age Group Track National Championship. While the weather is cold and wet outside, inside the ILT Velodrome the heat was on in the first day of the four day event.

It was Phillipa Gray and Sonia Waddell (Waikato Bay of Plenty), a tandem paracycling pair who stole the show. They rode a personal best time in the Paracycling 1000m Time Trial, exceeding all expectations and smashing the New Zealand record.

“We were aiming to ride sub 1.15 minutes, hoping to do 1.14 minutes, but to ride under 1.13 minutes was phenomenal,” Waddell said.

Their time of 1:12.892 was nearly a second faster than the New Zealand record held by Jayne Parsons and Annaliisa Farrell of Canterbury.

“We weren’t even aware of what the record was, so to smash it is a great feeling.”

Sonia Waddell, best known for her rowing career, steers the tandem, while Gray, who is visually impaired sits behind her. Gray has only nine percent vision due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disease.

These riders are showing remarkable promise, each relatively new to the sport of cycling. Waddell took to the bike a year ago, with Gray only taking up cycling a short four months ago. They first rode together in September last year, although they estimate they have only spent the equivalent of two weeks training on the bike together.

While this pair was the only tandem cycle entered in the event, they still were required to earn their gold medal. Due to the relatively small fields in paracycling, (often there is only one rider per class), medals are allocated based on how close the rider’s time was to that of the world record. Waddell and Gray’s ride was within the required five percent threshold in order to be awarded a gold medal.

Canterbury teenager Elizabeth Steel was the other star of the show, taking gold medals in both the under 19 Women’s 2000m Individual Pursuit and the Under 19 Women’s 6km Scratch Race.

Dylan Kennett (Mid South Canterbury) clocked a new national record in the Under 17 Boys Time Trial.

The RaboPlus Age Group National Track Championships run until Saturday.


02 Mar 2010
New Season of Attitude Starts - March 14
The first programme for the 2010 season of Attitude screens on Sunday March 14 on TV One at 8.30am and features a full programme on Adam Hall and Peter Williams. Attitude have been filming with Adam since 2008 and Peter during 2009, including a trip to Winter Park last year to see them both in situ and in full training mode. The programme reflects their journey and dedication to get to Vancouver for the Winter Paralympics.

In addition, TV One's Sunday programme will screen a condensed version of the programme the same night.


28 Feb 2010
Triathlon Confirms National Championships Open To Paratriathletes
Triathlon in New Zealand is growing at a faster rate than any other sport, now that growth is set to include Paratriathletes with the very first National Championships set down for Wellington on March 13.

Along with all other triathlon age group categories in standard distance racing, the Contact National Triathlon Championships in Wellington will now also govern selection for athletes with a disability to the 2010 World Championships in Hungary this September.

Sport Development Director for Tri NZ Brendon Downey says the move is a logical one for the sport and one that Tri NZ looks forward to.

“The Paralympics is one of the bigger sporting events held in the world and it makes perfect sense for Triathlon to embrace athletes with a disability. Triathlon is a sport for life and does not discriminate based on age, background or ability, it is only right then that we should cater for those athletes with a disability who choose to swim, bike and run.

“We have worked closely with both the ITU Paratriathlon Commission and Paralympics NZ to set the necessary rules and criteria to allow Paratriathletes to compete in our events safely and comfortably. Further to that we look forward to taking a team away to the World Championships each year with the view to bringing yet more medals back home in the Paratriathlon events.”

Once all criteria is met and athletes are appropriately classified they will race against others in the same category to earn spots in Budapest, provided all eligibility criteria is met and the athlete finishes within four hours over the standard distance course.

While Paratriathlon events are specifically for athletes with a physical or visual disability, they will compete alongside their able bodied age group competitors on the same course over the same distance but vie for World Championship selection against others with similar abilities.

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has hosted Paratriathlon World Championships since 1996 and now has over 800 athletes competing from 43 countries. It is a stated goal of the ITU to get Paratriathlon into the Paralympics for 2016; NZ currently has a representative on that working committee

Last year two Paratriathletes represented New Zealand at the World Championships in the Gold Coast, both athletes coming home with medals. Miriam Jenkins (gold) and Rob Matthews (silver) both proudly wore the silver fern as official members of the New Zealand team.

Paratriathletes undergo an assessment of function, prior to a national event, where they are classified and a competition class allocated to them which they compete in against others in the same class.

This is vital for those considering entry to the event in that they must be classified prior to arrival in Wellington or indeed for any future Paratriathlon event. Athletes wishing to seek classification should do so by contacting Brendon Downey on the contacts provided below.

There are six categories/classes that paratriathletes compete under, please refer to the following link for details and video footage:
http://archive.triathlon.org/?call=TWpVMg==&keep=sh
 

Last Updated | Friday, 12 March 2010

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