Teams competing this year are:

Men: Great Britain, USA, Germany and Sweden.
Women: Great Britain, China, The Netherlands, Brazil.

For full schedule and reults visit the Competition Website.

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is in the process of compiling the Classification Master List for those countries who have qualified for wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.

The list will be sent to all qualified NOWBs by March 30th, 2008. IWBF will not publish the list on their webpage or any other public domain.
NPCs with wheelchair basketball teams qualified for the Paralympic Games will also receive the list once it is complete.

For further information please contact:
IWBF Secretariat

The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation today released the names of the International Technical Officials (ITO) which have been invited to participate in the XIII Paralympic Games in Beijing.

Norbert Kucera, President of the Technical Commission of IWBF announced on behalf of the Commission that the following referees have accepted their appointment:

Cristian Salguero (ARG), Matias Quintana (ARG), Gabe Caligiuri (AUS), Matt Wells (AUS), Rui Marques (BRA), Sebastien Gauthier (CAN), Sergio Giordano (CAN), Jin Zhuo (CHI), Tomas Pajer (CZE), Antonia Gomez Ruf (ESP), Juan Uruñuela (ESP), Valerie Farrugia (FRA), Christopher Gregory (GBR), Ian Pursglove (GBR), Ulli Otto (GER), Max Kindervater (GER), Adrianos Pavlopoulos (GRE), Ziv Radomsky (ISR), Cristian Roja (ITA), Eisuke Kanno (JPN), André Bosveld (NED), Edwin Wallaart (NED), Charles Saunders (RSA), Mei Ho Shuet (SIN), Jonathon Burford (USA)

Kucera was also pleased to confirm that the following will attend as Referee Supervisors:

Sharon Arnold (AUS), Jorge Bestilleiro (BRA), Don Steponchev (CAN), Hans-Dieter Jungmann (GER)

Don Perriman, President of the Player Classification Commission announced on behalf of the Commission that the following classifiers had accepted their appointment:

Sonia Ribeiro (BRA), Anne Lachance (CAN), Trien Dinh (FRA), Kenny Mackay (GBR), Hiroshi  Tsunemi (JPN). In addition Perriman will serve as Chief Classifier for the Paralympics.

Ron Coppenrath, President of the Competition Commission of IWBF announced on behalf of the Commission that the following commissioners have accepted their appointment:

Greg Love (AUS), Luc De Knock (BEL), Trevor Kerr (CAN), Detlef Rehling (GER), Nico Viviers (RSA)

Maureen Orchard, Technical Delegate for Wheelchair Basketball, announced that Steve Spilka (GBR), Norbert Kucera (GER) and Jan Berteling (NED) will attend as members of the Tournament Technical Committee. They will work with Ron Coppenrath  Assistant Technical Delegate on the TTC.

Orchard noted that there are still a couple of appointments to be made to replace individuals who were not able to accept their invitation. This will be done at a later date.

She also mentioned that IWBF was very pleased with the fact that the ITOs come from 19 National Organizations for Wheelchair Basketball (NOWB). She believes this is the best representation that IWBF has ever been able to achieve and is confident this will help to assure that IWBF has experienced ITOs in each of the four Zones for some time to come.

For further information please contact the IWBF Secretariat at IWBFSecretariat@aol.com

We are currently working at getting the full website back online.

Thank you for your patience.

Please feel free to comment on the new design ....Make suggestions.... ]]>

The Good Luck Beijing 2008 Wheelchair Basketball International Invitational Tournament is in full swing with the first day of games completed. In the women's division China women lost to Japan 47-62 and Germany defeated Canada the reigning World Champions 65-57 in overtime. In the men's division Australia defeated China 75-46 and Canada the current World Champions defeated The Netherlands 69-31.

For full results and pictures please visit the IWBF web site at www.iwbf.org

In other news IWBF announced that the draw for the pools for the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games will take place on Wednesday, January 23 at 10:00 AM Beijing time.

Ron Coppenrath, President of Competition for IWBF today announced the pairings for the draw. In the men's division the pairs are: (1) Canada/USA (2) Australia/Iran (3) Sweden/Great Britain (4) Germany/Israel (5) Brazil/South Africa (6) China/Japan
In the women's division the pairs are: (1) Canada/USA (2) Germany/the Netherlands (3) Australia/Japan (4) Mexico/Brazil (6) China/Japan.

IWBF and BOCOG are very excited about this draw as it is the first one to take place in Beijing. IWBF President Maureen Orchard will conduct the draw with the assistance of Coppenrath and players from the Chinese team. Each pair will be placed in a container and Orchard will invite representatives from BOCOG and the wheelchair basketball community in attendance to draw a name. The first name out will be placed in Pool A with the second name going into Pool B.

In the IWBF system, China as host nation will be allowed to choose the pool they wish to be placed in.

Once all the Pools are completed Orchard will conduct a draw to determine the number of each team for the purpose of determining their place in the schedule.

Look for the results of the draw on the IWBF web site.

IWBF Secretariat
Phone: 1-204-632-6475
Fax: 1-204-697-2734
Email: IWBFSecretariat@aol.com
Email: IWBFPresident@mts.net
www.iwbf.org

The 2008 Wheelchair Basketball International Invitational Tournament, a Good Luck Beijing sport event, will be held in the newly built National Indoor Stadium from January 20 to 25.

The news came from the first plenary meeting of the event's organizing committee on Monday.

Eight teams from six countries will participate in the competitions. China, Canada, Germany and Japan will each send a women's team, while the men's teams come from China, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia.

Presently, the tournament's operation program, daily competition schedule and the venue's work plan have been made available.

The 24 international officials will come from the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF). Another 30 domestic technical officers will be assigned by the Chinese organizations. As required by the tournament, a total of 842 volunteers will be assigned to their posts on January 18.

Tang Xiaoquan, executive vice-president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) and president of the Executive Board of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, attended the meeting and made a speech.

Noting that the tournament is the second sport event of the Good Luck Beijing series for the Beijing Paralympic Games after last September's goal ball international tournament, Tang said it is also the last pre-Paralympic event before the Beijing Paralympics scheduled for September 6 to 17, 2008. She urged the organizers to ensure the success of the event to lay a solid foundation for the Paralympics, which will be as splendid as the Olympics. ]]>

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Many exciting things are happening in wheelchair basketball right now. We are preparing for the upcoming Good Luck Beijing-2008 Wheelchair Basketball International Invitational tournament which will be held in January 2008. This is the test event for the Paralympic Games and will be a great opportunity for IWBF to show the people of Beijing our sport.

In addition we have the good news that the Paralympic World Cup will once again take place in Manchester, UK and we will be part of it.

Ron Coppenrath tells me that IWBF Europe just held a very successful refresher clinic for their classifiers. At the same time they held a session for the referee trainer/examiners which I am told was well received by all in attendance.

I have just come back from attending the IPC Congress in Seoul, Korea where I had the good fortune to meet with the Vice-President of the Korean Wheelchair Basketball Federation as well as several other people involved in KWBF. They are looking to do some very exciting new projects in the coming years to ensure that their programs continue to grow.

I also conducted a second site visit in Beijing on my way home from Korea. I will give you a better update on this later in the E-news.

In November the Executive Council met in Rome and we had a very productive meeting. A report will be forthcoming in the next weeks to the NOWBs.

Finally, I wish you all a peaceful holiday season. As many of you may know, this past year has been a difficult one for me personally but I am happy to be able to say that the future seems much brighter now and both Jim and I look forward to a great 2008. We wish you all the very best in your New Year. May you enjoy good health, good friends and have only happiness in your future.

"GOOD LUCK BEIJING-2008 WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL INTERNATIONAL INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT”

IWBF is very fortunate to have been selected to be one of the test events for the Paralympics, the other being Goalball.

After discussion with BOCOG it was agreed to have four teams from amongst the top teams in the world in both men and women. Of course the host team China would be there in both divisions.

The teams chosen by BOCOG are in women: China, Canada, Germany and Japan. In men: China, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.

Maureen Orchard, Technical Delegate to the Paralympic Games for IWBF said that “this provides us with an excellent opportunity to familiarize some of our senior technical officials who will be at both this event and the Paralympic Games with the venue and the personnel we will be working with during the Paralympics. We had a similar opportunity before the World Championships in Amsterdam and really felt it was very useful.” Orchard has asked Assistant Technical Delegate Ron Coppenrath, TTC members Jan Berteling and Norbert Kucera, Chief Classifier Don Perriman and Senior Referee Don Steponchev to join her in January.

Orchard mentioned that IWBF was also very pleased to be able to use this event to provide an opportunity for more ITOs to have a “Beijing experience”. The IWBF technical team will also include:

Classifiers: Walter Pfaller, Regina Costa, Cristina Rosello.
Commissioners: Doris Castro, Allan McAleese, Ricardo Moreno.
Referees: Philip Haines, Frances Kremarik, Jin Zhou, Jun Zhang, Clara Baquero Pecino, Seppo Viljanen, Robert Ruisinger, Platonas Serras, Euclides Estrada, Theo Vlug, Utku Ertan, Zarko Tomsic.

IWBF will also conduct the draw for the pools for the Paralympic Games during the “Good Luck” tournament. The draw will take place on January 23. The pairings for the draw were made in accordance with the standings from the previous main official tournament of IWBF, the 2006 World Championships, and the standings in each Zone after the Qualification tournaments for Beijing. The pairs for the draw will be released later.

The hotel being used for the test event is the Yuan Chenxin International Hotel. It is a four star hotel and I had the opportunity to visit it on my site visit. It is very close to the NIS and will more then meet our needs. The hotel staff was all very friendly and is looking forward to having the wheelchair basketball teams stay with them. The hotel has several elevators which will easily hold three wheelchairs and all rooms should be able to accommodate any player with some being slightly larger then others. The meals will all be served in the revolving restaurant on the top floor of the hotel which will be for the exclusive use of the participants during their meal times. If I can make one suggestion to the teams - bring pins from your country as the hotel staff really like them.

Check out the website at: http://www.wheelchairbk2008.org.cn/en/index.html

SITE VISIT REPORT

Maureen Orchard was in Beijing November 26-28 for a second site visit. She reports that the venues that wheelchair basketball will be using are both finished. The main venue, the National Indoor Stadium (NIS), is a brand new arena along the lines of the one used in Athens and for the World Junior championships in Birmingham. It seats approximately 18,000 spectators with seating at floor level for same sport spectators.

The venue is outstanding; all areas are fully accessible with large doors and no barriers for people in wheelchairs. There are sufficient changing room facilities with accessible toilets and showers.

The venue has two warm-up courts which along with the main court meet all IWBF specifications. The hall ways are wide with good access to the main court from the changing areas.

The second venue is also very good. It is a new building on the University of Science and Technology campus. It is not quite as large but has a warm up court and excellent main court. The changing area is sufficient for our needs and has accessible toilets and showers. The seating in this venue is about 4,000 permanent seats and it is the intention to bring in another several thousand temporary seats. As in the NIS seating for same sport spectators will be at floor level. This venue will be used for the preliminary round only and then will become the venue for wheelchair rugby.

The village is only minutes away and BOCOG is intending to have Paralympic Lanes to ensure the smooth movement of team buses. The other piece of good news is the fact that BOCOG intends to provide each team with a truck to store game chairs and other equipment in. The truck will accompany the team wherever it goes for practice or games. The buses that will be used are all accessible and each team will have one bus to transport them to the venues. The bus can seat 7 people in their wheelchairs and easily seat the rest of the team delegation. All will be used at the test event so IWBF will have a chance to ensure this is adequate.

The balls being used for both the test event and the Paralympic Games are the Molten BGL7 for men and BGL6 for women.

IWBF is pleased to announce that all teams that have qualified for the Paralympic Games have accepted their invitation to participate.

Check out the IWBF website for pictures of the venue. http://www.iwbf.org

2008 PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP IN MANCHESTER, UK IS A GO!

IWBF is pleased to announce that wheelchair basketball will once again join Athletics, Swimming and Track Cycling in Manchester for the 2008 Paralympic World Cup. The following countries have accepted the invitation to participate:

WOMEN: Great Britain, Brazil, China and the Netherlands

MEN: Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and the USA

Ron Coppenrath, President of Competition said, “we are looking forward to some good competition as all eight teams will be preparing for the Paralympic Games in September.”

The wheelchair basketball may be moved to a new location to accommodate TV coverage. The dates for wheelchair basketball are May 7 – 10, 2008.

INVOICES ARE BEING EMAILED TO ALL NOWBs

In an attempt to avoid destroying more trees IWBF will email the 2008 Membership invoices to all NOWBs. Please look for these to arrive in the next week. If you haven’t received your invoice by December 15, 2007 please contact the IWBF Secretariat at IWBFSecretariat@aol.com as it is possible we do not have a current email address for you.

NOWBs that require a paper invoice are asked to contact the IWBF Secretariat at IWBFSecretariat@aol.com to request that it be posted to you.

ZONES ELECT NEW EXECUTIVES TO LEAD THEM

All four of the Zones held their Congress during the Qualification tournament and Zone Championship this year. The IWBF could not function with out the
help and hard work of the individuals who allow their name to stand for election and accept the responsibility to work for our great game in their zone.
The following people were elected to serve their zone from 2007 – 2011.

Tragedy in South Africa.

We were all saddened to hear of the terrible accident in South Africa in which the bus carrying the Eastern Capes wheelchair basketball team was hit by a truck. Four players were killed in the accident Ms Deonette Olivier, Dirk Brand, Simlindile Vuliwe and Ayanda Ntembiso. I know I speak for everyone in the IWBF family when I say that our thoughts are with their families and their teammates as they try to cope with their loss.

It was to have been the teams first ever appearance at the national championships. Several other players were injured and are now recovering.

IWBF will be making a donation of $2,500.00 to our member in South Africa Wheelchair Basketball South Africa (WBSA). We have asked WBSA to use the money in which ever way they believe will be of the most help to the team.