Wheelchair rugby combines elements of rugby
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This unique sport combines elements of rugby, basketball and handball. Players compete in teams of four to carry the ball across the opposing team’s goal line. Contact between wheelchairs is permitted – and is in fact an integral part of the sport, as players use their chairs to block and hold opponents.
There are seven wheelchair rugby teams around the country, and the Tuks Club in Pretoria has been going for over a decade, and currently has 12 members.
For Victor Buitendag, the development and administration officer for SA Wheelchair Rugby, one of the biggest benefits of wheelchair rugby is that it opens new and exciting opportunities for its players.
“It assists people with disabilities to create a new lifestyle for themselves by showing them what is possible,” he says.
To be eligible to play, athletes must have a disability which affects both the arms and legs. Most of those who play have spinal cord injuries with full or partial paralysis of the legs and partial paralysis of the arms. Others who play have cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, polio, or neurological conditions – or are amputees.
Players are assigned a sport classification based on their level of disability; teams must field players with a mix of classification values, allowing players with different functional abilities to compete together.
While wheelchair rugby is a Paralympic sport, and has a large following overseas, the South African teams are virtually without a full-time sponsor. Buitendag says he hopes this will change and wants to see South Africa become the strongest wheelchair rugby team in the world.
A positive step in this direction is the IWRS Asia Oceana wheelchair rugby zone qualifier, which is being hosted in Pretoria next year. “The teams attending, from China, Korea and the like, all have lots of funding so we hope that the qualifier will build awareness in the country about the sport.”