Members of the New South Wales and Victorian Basketball Teams with the Rosemary Hobbs Trophy.

This year marked the 16th Annual National Sports Weekend held in Albury NSW and what a weekend it was. The state of origin basketball kicked off the weekend from a sporting front with Victoria coming away with a win to level the head to head series between NSW and Victoria at 8 wins each. Hopefully this is an indication of the tight level of competition for many years to come. There was a slightly new focus from a sporting point of view during this year’s weekend with the first official round robin tournaments for Boccia and Badminton. This was something that required a little bit of trial and error on our part and will hopefully continue to develop over the coming years.

I would like to congratulate David Cowlishaw, Alex Simak and Graci Lynch who won the gold, silver and bronze respectively in the short-statured boccia tournament, as well as Anne Battista, Marie Millard and Marg Daly who came away with the medals in the average height division. There was also some fierce competition on the Badminton court with Michael Blair and Dalton Ong becoming the inaugural gold medal winners just edging out Meredith and Jonathon Tripp who came away with the silver and Alex Simak and Ryan Cowlishaw with the bronze. A special mention also goes out to Charlie and Leon Lilly who led the way in the average height division. I would like to send out a huge thank you to all of the participants in the tournaments, as this was the first time they were run there were a few bumps along the way and a little bit of time waiting around. I am confident that with this year under our belt we will be able to stream line the tournaments from here on and allow for more time for the other team sports such as Soccer, Hockey and Touch Football.

I would also like to congratulate Jonathon Battista on being awarded the Leanne Wegener award for this year’s National Sports Weekend. All weekend Jono worked hard to be involved in all of the sporting events and the social aspects of the weekend. Beyond this he was able to get others involved through his enthusiasm and effort, which is what the weekend is all about. Well done Jono!

We are extremely grateful for all your feedback so far on the weekend from a sporting front and also socially. All of your ideas and comments go into adapting the weekend into what you want it to be. So please if you have anything you would like to pass on regarding the weekend please don’t hesitate to contact me on samuel.r.millard@gmail.com.

In other sporting news the Dwarf Athletics Association of America have released some new information regarding the 2013 World Dwarf Games which is available through their website www.daaa.org
Included in this latest information is the proposed host sports that America have chosen which are Pistol Shooting and Archery. If any of you out there were inspired by the Albury weekend or have decided you want to express your interest in the WDG, please forward your EOI form to me via email or post. Forms can be found through the SSPA national website at www.sspa.org.au

Finally I would like to wish the members of the SSPA who are travelling over to compete in the DAAA games in California later this month the best of luck in all of their events.

Sam Millard
National Sports Coordinator

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