More than 200 athletes from across New Zealand and Australia will take part in a series of basketball and football competitions at the inaugural bournament, to be held from November 2-5 in Wellington.
Special Olympics New Zealand, and its Trans-Tasman counterpart Special Olympics Australia, offers year-round sports training and competition for people with intellectual disabilities in the community and at secondary school. More than 6000 New Zealand athletes train with Special Olympics New Zealand in 14 Olympic-style sports and compete locally, nationally and internationally.
“We are very excited to be holding the first Trans-Tasman Tournament,” says Kathy Gibson, chief executive officer of Special Olympics New Zealand.
“In creating this new event, we are keen to give our athletes more competition opportunities to complete at international level. Football and basketball are two of our most popular sports and the tournament gives our athletes the chance to show off their skills against their Trans Tasman peers and rivals.
“While a number of our basketball players have competed overseas at the World Summer Games and Oceania events, for most of our football athletes this tournament will be the first time they have had the opportunity to compete against other international players,” she says.
“The Trans-Tasman Tournament will showcase our specialised football training programme, which has been in development for the past two years with OFC and UEFA. We will have several local football celebrities attending and there will be scope for a unified game with our talented athletes.”
The tournament includes a skills programme (to help determine which teams the players will compete in), followed by a series of round robin-style games. All basketball events will take place in Wellington City Council’s new ASB Sports Centre at in Kilbirnie while the football events are being held on the Hutt City Council pitches outside Special Olympics New Zealand’s headquarters at Hutt Park, Seaview.
Full event details can be found at www.specialolympics.org.nz

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