News

The World ParaVolley Board recently approved China as host of the 2022 Sitting Volleyball World Championships to be held at the World ParaVolley Hangzhou Development Centre tentatively 18th to 24th May 2022.

Some seven countries initially expressed interest in hosting the event. The Board voted unanimously to approve China, thus creating history in that it will be the first time that the combined men/women’s event will have been held in PVAO (Asia/Oceania).

World ParaVolley has extended its partnership with Japanese sports equipment company Senoh Corporation for the 2021-2024 period. World ParaVolley President Barry Couzner OAM and Senoh President Tetsuya Ozaki signed the contract remotely this month.

Senoh is known worldwide for its production of high-quality standing sitting volleyball and beach paravolley equipment and its track record in the Olympic Games. World ParaVolley signed a homologation agreement with Senoh back in 2016.

The General Assembly of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) welcomed the Association of Paralympic Sports Organisations (APSO) as an associate member of their umbrella organisation. The vote was conducted on 10 November during the annual meeting of the GAISF membership, which was held virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The IWRF Development team have reviewed the regional structure for global wheelchair rugby development resulting in the IWRF Board approving two major initiatives:

1. The formation of four Development Regions including:

• Americas
• Asia/Oceania
• Europe
• Middle East and Africa (MEA)

MEA being the new region which allows a strategic focus on that region which had previously been approved by the board.

Athletes are at the centre of what we do and the IWRF is committed to its stated value – Athlete Focused. To that end a new web page has been launched on iwrf.com today called Athlete Welfare.

This page contains newly developed guidelines under the guidance of IWRF Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ken Lee covering several subject areas, and advanced warning of other guidelines on their way including the following:

Release Date and Topic

FIBA and IWBF (International Wheelchair Basketball Federation) have strengthened their partnership with the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding until the end of 2023.

The two world governing bodies for the sports of basketball and wheelchair basketball have extended the agreement that will see them continue to work closely with the same goal: to make basketball, in whatever version, the most popular sports community.

The International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) has revealed the list of seven sports that will feature at the IWAS World Games in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, from 10-17 December.

Athletics, powerlifting, shooting, swimming, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair fencing will form the programme for the event.

Wheelchair fencing will stage its Asian Championships – a qualifier for Tokyo 2020 – and under 17 and under 23 World Championships in Nakhon Ratchasima.

The International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) and British Blind Sport have revealed that the men’s and women’s IBSA Blind Football World Championships and the partially sighted World Championships will take place as part of the 2023 World Games in Birmingham, Great Britain.

The announcement was made with three years to go until the opening ceremony of Birmingham 2023 on 18 August.

The IPC Athletes’ Council has launched an online portal for Para athletes to register and take part in a consultation exercise to gather a better understanding on ways Para athletes could express their views on key subjects at the Paralympic Games, while respecting the Paralympic Movement’s values and principles.

Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. and the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) have joined forces to help shape an inclusive society.

Through this partnership, Santen and IBSA will strive for social inclusion by boosting people’s awareness and understanding toward people with a vision impairment, and further promote opportunities to share the joy of sports.

After a wide-ranging open recruitment process, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has appointed a new independent Board of Appeal of Classification (BAC). The 14-member panel report to the independent chair of the BAC, who is Fred Jansen of the Netherlands.