Learning about how a sound ball works and the game of cricket be played with the specially designed ball, was a defining moment in the life of Vaishnav Mahender. Mahender, who suffers from irreversible vision impairment and 13 other visually impaired cricketers, recently represented India at the international level.
India is set to host the inaugural blind cricket Twenty20 World Cup in December.
David Townley, president of the World Blind Cricket Council, says the group voted during a two-day meeting in the United Arab Emirates that ended Sunday to hold the tournament in Bangalore starting on Dec. 3. Its schedule has yet to be finalized but the tournament will last a maximum of 14 days.
He says council members Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal, West Indies and England will participate.
Prachurya Pradhan, a Class IX student, has become the first blind person in the state to secure a FIDE ( World Chess Federation) rating. Prachurya, a student of Bhima Bhoi School for the Blind here, has got 1,337 points in the rating published in May. "I am happy achieving the milestone. I have resolved to do better," he said.
Heinrich Wagner is a visually impaired man, one who has brazenly performed numerous feats that would reduce most 'normal' human beings to quivering, cowering messes. Apart from participating in several endurance-testing marathons, the Capetonian has broken two land speed records, sky-dived from a height of 10,000 feet and bungee-jumped from one of the highest bridges in the world. Apart from cycling solo for 39km, Wagner has completed the 2011 ABSA Cape Epic (regarded as the Tour de France of mountain biking).
After winning five gold medals in as many races at the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games, Germany’s visually impaired biathlete and cross-country skier Verena Bentele has been named the Best Female Athlete for the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Paralympic Sport Awards.
The award, proudly partnered by Allianz, the IPC’s international partner, was presented to Bentele during the Paralympic Awards Gala on 10 December in the Intercontinental Hotel ballroom in Beijing, China.
A documentary on an inspiring bicycle trip around Taiwan by 10 visually impaired people, each accompanied by a sighted coach, will be released shortly after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The cyclists, dubbed the “knights in the darkness,” set out on tandem bicycles from Taipei on Nov. 19, and returned to the capital on Nov. 29, completing the 11-day 1,050km trip.
“In the beginning, we all thought it was impossible,” said Sandy Peng (彭玉慧), secretary-general of the Taiwan Ah Gan Spiritual Development Association, which organized the trip.
Cross-country skiers know just how physically demanding that sport can, but try facing that challenge without use of your legs or the ability to see the trail ahead of you.
“Imagine skiing 20 miles an hour through a course, down hills and up hills without the use of your vision,” said John Farra, Director of the U.S. Paralympic Nordic Team.
Those were some of the obstacles facing athletes competing in the International Paralympic Nordic Skiing World Cup this week at Theodore Wirth Park.
The organisers of the event call it a “rally with a difference” and indeed it is one. On March 4, Pune will witness its first car rally for the visually impaired. The rally, which will be flagged off at 8 am from Phoenix Market City Mall, Kalyani Nagar, is expected to get registrations from around 125 drivers. The rally will follow a strict pattern - the participants will drive the car, while a visually impaired navigator in the car will direct the driver by reading through an instruction manual written in Braille.
Around 800 athletes from 24 States are expected to participate in the three-day Para Athletics National Championship 2012, which will begin at Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Monday.
Athletes pay from their pockets for travel to Bangalore for the Para-Athletics National Championship
They are athletes who made our country proud in Paralympics, Para-Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and other international championships. Yet, they had to pay from their own pockets to travel from their respective States to Bangalore to participate in the Para-Athletics National Championship 2012.
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