September 2003 Newsletter

World Wheelchair Games

Lawn Bowler Joshua McCauley has been added to the Wheelchair Sports Australia team to attend the World Wheelchair Games in the sport of Lawn Bowls. Congratulations Joshua!

SPORTS NEWS

Archery

At the 4th IPC Archery World Championships in Madrid, Spain Australia's Natalie Cordowiner finished second in the Women's Standing Recurve. Scott Roberts finished 16 in the Men's Standing class whilst Cain Beckett finished 33 in the same class.

For full results visit http://www.emmilio-allmendinger.de/bogenfax/ipc_madrid2003/individual_finals.pdf

Athletics

At the IAAF World Athletics Championships Louise Sauvage has won her fifth consecutive gold medal at the world athletics championships, taking out the 800m in a time of 1min 57.15secs to complete a sweep of every 800m demonstration at the world athletics championships since 1993.

Sauvage swept past Canadian Chantal Petitclerc with 250m to go and went away to take the win. Canada's Diane Roy was second in 1:57.72 with Mexico's Ariadne Hernandez third in 1:57.99.

Congratulations also goes to Neil Fuller and Darren Thrupp who competed at the Championships:

Neil Fuller (SA) 200m 4/8 4th 24.23 (-0.5)
Darren Thrupp (Qld) 400m 5/6 5th 58.49

Basketball

Under 20 - The Wheelchair Sports Australia Under 20 Basketball team won a gold medal at the New Zealand Basketball Nationals held in Taupo. Jace Clare and Darren Skuse were both named in the All Star Five and Jace was named the Nationals Most Valuable Player.

Results for the team were as follows:

U20s defeated Southland 72-22
U20s defeated Bay of Plenty 67 -37
U20s defeated Auckland A 72-53
U20s defeated Auckland B 77-62
U20s defeated Waikato 64-62

NRMA Insurance National League - The Hills Hornets have defeated the North Sydney Bears 55-44 in the grand final of the NRMA Insurance Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League competition.

Noel Rowsell reports the grand final saw the Bears show their true form and match it basket for basket with the Hornets for the opening quarter. Foul trouble began to plague the Bears in the second quarter and, as the Sydney-siders stalled, young pocket rocket Kylie Gauci pounced for the Hornets, showing amazing court speed and ball control to race into double figures by the main break and lead her team to a 25-17 advantage. That margin was to prove an insurmountable challenge for the Bears, who threatened on occasions but were constantly turned back by the speed of Gauci and the inside presence of Tesch and Hodson. Gauci led the Hornets with a game-high 18 points, ahead of Hodson 12, Tesch 19, Rebecca Wright 4, Katie Hill 4, Hooker 3, Violet McMillan 2 and Karen Farrell 2. Sachs led the Bears with 10 points, ahead of Pattison 9, Sarah Stewart 8, Lisa O'Nion 6, Sam Simms 5, Jen Howitt 4 and Kim Hughes 2.

Gauci proved to the stand-out player of the season, taking out the Most Valuable Player award, the Highest Point Scorer award and also winning a berth in the All-Star Five alongside Alison Mosely (Storm), Julianne Adams (Victoria), Tesch (Hornets) and O'Nion (Bears). Best New Talent award went to Pattison (Bears).

Gliders - Congratulations to the following girls who have been selected for the Slam Down Under

Paula Coghlan 4.5
Alison Mosely 4.5
Liesl Tesch 4.0
Shelly Chaplin 4.0
Jane Sachs 3.0
Tina McKenzie 3.0
Kylie Gauci 2.0
Julianne Adams 2.0
Karen Farrell 1.0
Lisa Chaffey 1.0

- NWBL The Wollongong Roller Hawks have defeated the Brisbane Spinning Bullets by 30 points in the Gold Medal game of the National Wheelchair Basketball League. Joey Johnson was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the final series whilst Patrick Anderson was named the MVP for the season, Brendan Dowler MVP low pointer, Abdulgazi Karaman MVP mid range and Patrick Anderson MVP high pointer. The All Star 5 was announced as P. Anderson, T. Sachs, A. Karaman, B. Dowler, H. Iwano. Perth Wheelcats defeated Razorbacks for 3rd place.

Cycling

Australia has retained its number one ranking in World Cycling after the teams success at the IPC European Cycling Championships.

Juniors

The Wheelchair Sports Australia Junior Records have been updated and can now be viewed on AAWD's website www.sports.org.au

Powerlifting

Congratulations to the Australian team who competed at the European Championships. Australia's team of five finished with two medals, Darren Gardiner a bronze and Deahnne McIntrye a silver while Wayne Sharpe finished 4th, Shaun Cavuato 6th and Paul Hyde 9th.

Rugby

Astra Tech National League - the new expanded format of the Astra Tech National League was well received in 2003 by all players and we saw some great competition throughout the season. Final overall results are as follows:

1st South Australia Sharks
2nd Queensland Crocs
3rd New South Wales
4th Western Australia Black Ducks
5th Victoria Melbourne Thunder

Individual Awards were presented as follows:

Most Valuable Player: George Hucks (SA)
Best New Talent: Bruce Croft (WA)
Best in Class 0.5: Ryan Scott (SA)
1.0: Garry Croker (NSW)
1.5: Peter Harding (SA)
2.0: Brett Boylan (NSW)
2.5: Ryley Batt (NSW)
3.0: George Hucks (SA)
3.5: Brad Dubberley (WA)

- The Steelers After the Astra Tech National League Finals the Steelers departed Sydney for the Oceania Zone Championships where the team won the Championships and Scott Vitale (1.5) and Brad Dubberley (3.5) won their respective Best in Class Awards for the tournament.

Table Tennis

Congratulations to Tony Begg (Queensland) who recently competed in the US Open Championship in Colardo Springs.

October Calendar of Events

3-11 Volleyball Standing Volleyball World Cup Rhodes, Greece
11-12 WSA WSA Annual General Meeting Sydney, NSW
16-23 Table Tennis FESPIC Championships China
23-25 Rugby Chris Handy Cup Christchurch, New Zealand
25-1 Nov Multi-sport World Wheelchair Games 2003 Christchurch, New Zealand

Correct at time of print.