Wheelchair Basketball introduced in Manipur

Imphal (Manipur), September 05, 2018:

The Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India (WBFI) in partnership with Department of Social Welfare and Department of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of Manipur and Shishu Sarothi is organising a 3-day Workshop on Wheelchair Basketball from September 5 to September 7 at Khuman Lampak Indoor stadium, Imphal, Manipur.

This is the first time that Wheelchair Basket ball has been introduced in Manipur. The goal of the Workshop is to train the first set of players and coaches from Manipur state for the long term development of the sport amongst the disability sector in Manipur. It is hoped that the training will go a long way in contributing to increasing the number of qualified coaches and players for wheelchair basket ball in India.

Kalyani Rajaraman, Secretary General, Wheelchair Basket ball Federation of India is organizing this event. Lee Roy Simon and Suvarna Limahe, nationally trained wheelchair basketball coach will be conducting the training. 25 trainee players will be participating out of which 5 will be women trainee players.

At the end of the 3 day workshop, players will learn basics of wheelchair basketball, an exhibition match will be conducted on 7th 4pm followed by certificate distribution. 10 best players will be selected and they will form Manipur Wheelchair basketball team and will participate in the upcoming “5th National wheelchair basketball championship, 2018” at Erode, Tamil Nadu from 20 to 23, September, 2018.

It may be mentioned that Wheelchair basket ball is a para sport played in Paralympics since 1960 and around 105 countries are playing this game. In India this sport was introduced by WBFI in 2014