The Championships are the first major international wheelchair rugby event to be conducted in Sydney since the Paralympics in 2000 and as such are a wonderful opportunity for school students to attend.

The status of the event is further enhanced by it being a Beijing Paralympic Games qualifying event and hence teams from Oceania namely China, Japan, New Zealand, Korea and Australia will compete. As well the Canadian team will be competing by invitation. This means we will have four of the top 6 ranked teams in the world namely New Zealand (2), Canada (3), Japan (5) and Australia (6).

The Sydney Olympic Park Sports Centre will hold up to 2000 people daily for our Championships. We are hoping with the support of schools that we can fill the Centre for the four school days of the Championships. Games will commence at 11am, 12.30pm and 2pm daily and a schedule will be available in the coming weeks.

We believe that this is a marvellous opportunity to capture some of the wonderful flavour of the Sydney Paralympics by involving schools as in 2000. This is great chance for school students to appreciate the ABILITY of these inspirational athletes with a disability, and to gain an insight, in this case, into the lives of quadriplegic rugby players.

We are seeking maximum involvement by the students during their visits to the Championships. This will include the following:

• ‘adopt a team’ by liaising particularly with international schools
• explanation of the rules and the game via continual announcements
• a detailed program for each student outlining the sport including the disability classifications
• cheering and wave competitions
• follow up discussion topics and viewpoints for the schools to pursue
• a strong road safety message

Note: we will be targeting particularly Years 4 – 10.

On the basis of the above, we are inviting your school to join us for these Championships, and entry is a gold coin donation (per student). Wheelchair Sports NSW is a charitable organisation.

If you are interested in attending please complete the ‘Expression of Interest’  form and return it to;

 Arrive alive Oceania Wheelchair Rugby Championships 2007

                        Wheelchair Sports NSW
                        P.O Box 3244
                        PUTNEY NSW 2112

                        P: 9809 5260
                        F: 9809 5638
                        E: meredithe@wsnsw.org.au or williamt@wsnsw.org.au