Excitement mounts ahead of 10th IWAS World Junior Games at Stoke Mandeville
The International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation (IWAS) will host the 10th IWAS World Junior Games at Stoke Mandeville Stadium from 3 to 7 August 2014.
More than 350 young disabled athletes will be accompanied by 150 team staff from 32 countries. They will compete in seven sports: archery, athletics and race running, powerlifting, swimming, table tennis and wheelchair fencing. Para-Taekwondo will be included as an exhibition sport.
Aged between 14 and 22 years old, the young hopefuls will be competing at the Games which provide valuable competition for their pathways to the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. The Games take place just weeks before the IPC Athletics European Championships in Swansea, Wales.
IWAS took the decision in 2013 to organise the Games at Stoke Mandeville again. It gives the world’s best young athletes another to compete at an elite level at the birthplace of the Paralympic movement. *The first International Stoke Mandeville World Games was held in 1952 – ISMGF became ISMWSF became IWAS
A number of London 2012 Paralympians made their international debut at the 1st IWAS World Junior Games at Stoke Mandeville in 2005. They included Swiss wheelchair racer Marcel Hug (winner of the 2014 Virgin Money London Wheelchair Marathon) and British Paralympians- Aled Davis and Hollie Arnold.
Following the first Games, they were held in Ireland in 2006, South Africa 2007, the USA 2008, Switzerland 2009, Czech Republic 2010, UAE 2011, Czech Republic 2012 and Puerto Rico in 2013.
Paul DePace, IWAS President said ahead of the Games:
“IWAS is fortunate to be able to build on the legacy of London 2012 and the renewed interest in para-sport especially so here in Buckinghamshire – the birthplace of the Paralympic Movement.”
