Speaker 1 00:00
You.
Speaker 2 00:03
With information on the latest developments in assistive technology and initiatives. The studios of two RPH in Sydney bring to you ablequest.
Speaker 3 00:18
Hello, I'm Malaine Juntech. Recently we interviewed Matt Clayton, CEO of the not for profit organisation Blind Sports Australia. This national sporting organisation for blind and Vision impaired athletes helps create pathways and opportunities for people to take part in blind sports, from a grassroots level right through to elite competition in more than 21 different sports. It is about this elite level that Matt has returned to ablequest to discuss the upcoming International Blind Sports Federation world Games. There are three paralympic and eight nonparalympic sports in the programme. These games are to be held in Birmingham, England from the 18th to the 27 August. Matt will accompany the australian team as chef demission and he spoke to Marnie Roper about this exciting event.
Speaker 4 01:17
Welcome back to Ablequest, Matt. You joined us in May this year when we discussed Blind Sports Australia and your role as CEO. For listeners who didn't hear that programme and it's available on a podcast on the two RPH website. If people want to go back and listen to it, tell us briefly about blind Sports Australia.
Speaker 1 01:38
Thanks, Marnie. Blind Sports Australia is the national sporting organisation for Blind Vision impaired sport. Here in Australia, our core role is about helping create pathways and opportunities for people to participate in blind sport, grass sports, community level, right up to elite competition, national, international, that type of thing. We're involved in developing a range of programmes around the country, working with schools, working with sports, try and grow, more participation and more opportunities. So, to give you an example, we're now at a point in Australia where we have about 24 different sports that are accessible for people who are blind or have low vision to get involved.
Speaker 4 02:11
It's a good cross section as well, isn't it, of sports?
Speaker 1 02:14
Very much. Very much. And that's everything from a sport like shooting through to sailing, to judo, and a whole range in between.
Speaker 4 02:21
And during our earlier interview, you mentioned to me about the international blind sports world's games. And now they're coming up on the 18 August until the 27 August. And you have a major role as chef domission for the australian team. Congratulations.
Speaker 1 02:40
Thank you.
Speaker 4 02:41
Briefly, what will this role entail?
Speaker 1 02:44
I guess the chef admission role. Look, the core thing, from my perspective, it's about leading the overall team to Birmingham and bringing them together and creating a bit of a sense of an australian team. We've got people from a range of different sports who are competing and also across two core locations. So for me, it's bringing that sense of team because also all the practical things such as registration, logistics, working with sports comms, marketing and very much supporting the team on the ground. But overall, it's about bringing a sense of team together and a bit of.
Speaker 4 03:14
Background on the games. When and how did these first start?
Speaker 1 03:18
The first games were actually back in 1998, held in Madrid. Look, primarily it was a bit of a practical function, so there were a couple of sports that had direct paralympic qualification and the world Games were a chance to be able to put that into place so that those qualifications could take place and then build some other sports around that. So while it was part function, was also a chance to celebrate the different sports were on offer. That's certainly grown and evolved. The first games back in 90, I think, had athletics, golf ball, judo and swimming. And that's evolved and changed at all the games since it runs every four years. A bit like a paralympic or a Kong game cycle runs every four years. So this will be the. I think this will be the 7th games taken place.
Speaker 4 04:01
Right. And did you have a bit of a gap during COVID or were you able to carry on?
Speaker 1 04:06
Well, fortunately, the last games were scheduled in 2019, so just before COVID however, it was a very small games. The contrast to the Games coming up is that these games will be a lot bigger and will incorporate a whole range of sports.
Speaker 4 04:20
And they're being held in England.
Speaker 1 04:22
Most of the activity will be based at the University of Birmingham, which is the same location as the Cornwall Games, as the core village. We'll also have Goldwall, which is one of the sports taking place, which will be based out of Coventry, so about 45 minutes away.
Speaker 4 04:36
And how many competitors are they expecting?
Speaker 1 04:39
We've been trying to get hold of a definitive number, but certainly the main numbers that they've been working on for a while is around 1700 competitors. So it's quite big. Yes, quite big.
Speaker 4 04:49
And then all of those competitors will all have crew with them.
Speaker 1 04:52
That's right. So I think it's around about 70 nations that are taking part.
Speaker 4 04:56
It's interesting because I noticed that one of the countries that had held it was turkey, and I thought, isn't that fantastic that they've held games? Is that right?
Speaker 1 05:05
Yeah, that's right. Italia, I think, had it back in 2011. It was about the fourth games. Turkey is quite a strong country in the blind sporting landscape, particularly within the International blind Sporting Federation itself. It's. While it's not a country we necessarily engage with a lot directly here, it's quite strong when it comes to a lot of sports in the blind sporting space.
Speaker 4 05:27
And how many competitors is Australia sending?
Speaker 1 05:30
So we'll have 59 athletes taking part. So 28 women and 31 men and a support crew. So coaches, team managers, et cetera, of about 29. So an overall contention of about 88.
Speaker 4 05:43
People, it'll all be settled together in a village.
Speaker 1 05:46
Yeah, that's right. So apart from those who are competing over at Coventry, we'll all be sort of housed in the same space. So we'll try and create a bit of an Australia house type scenario where everyone can come together. We'll also have a couple of Kiwis who will be either part of the support staff or watching a bit of what's going on as well. So we might give them more of an Oceania flavour.
Speaker 4 06:05
Now, there are eleven sports. Three of these are featured in the Paralympics. Which ones are those?
Speaker 1 06:12
So the three that are in the Paralympics are golf ball, judo and blind football. So for golf ball, for instance, there are a range of different qualification markers for the eight teams in the men's competition and eight men's teams in the women's competition. So this is one of the direct qualifying events. So if you win this tournament, for instance, you get direct qualification to the Paralympics in Paris next year. But if you finish a little bit down the order, depending on what other teams qualify, can actually mark as a way to be able to go and get that qualification spot right.
Speaker 4 06:44
And what are the other sports of.
Speaker 1 06:47
The eleven sports that are there? So there is archery, blind crickets, blind and low vision tennis, golf ball, judo, power lifting, as well as sports like blind football, as I mentioned, partially side of footsall showdown, ten pin bowling and chess.
Speaker 4 07:04
Now, in our earlier interview, we discussed the blind and low vision tennis because there'd been an exhibition match at the Australian Open, first Grand slam, I think, to have an exhibition match. So how many of our players are competing in Birmingham?
Speaker 1 07:20
So we've got a team of, I think it's eleven athletes in blind and low vision tennis who'll be competing. In fact, some of them will be joined by a few more australian athletes and going to compete in an international tournament in Poland, in Krakow soon after. The tournament itself finishes. Quite a large contingent going over.
Speaker 4 07:39
And do they play singles and doubles?
Speaker 1 07:42
Certainly they'll be playing singles. We're just finding out the details around the doubles competition itself, but it has been touted there will be some doubles competition on offer as well.
Speaker 4 07:52
And we've previously done a programme on Ablequest, on blind cricket. And I believe this year, for the first time, we're sending a women's team to compete.
Speaker 1 08:01
This will be the first australian women's team competing internationally at any level for blind cricket, so it's pretty exciting. There'll be three countries that will be having teams at the game, so India, England and Australia. So to have this as a real landmark moment in terms of the growth of the sport is fantastic. We've developed quite a strong squad. Certainly at the national carnival last year or early this year, we had a large number of women taking part. So the fact we've now gone to that point of having a national team competing for the first time looks extremely exciting. To the point we had about 23, 24 women who put their names forward for consideration for a team of 14. And those who missed out were quite strong.
Speaker 4 08:43
Yes, well, let's hope they do as well as the ladies team and the Ashes.
Speaker 1 08:47
Yeah, very much. Very much. It'd be wonderful.
Speaker 4 08:50
One sport that's truly unique is golf ball. Tell us about that.
Speaker 1 08:55
Goalball is an amazing sport. It's one that we always have fun trying to explain. And probably the easiest way I can describe it, it's played on a volleyball court size, so it's divided up into three main zones. So it's 80 metres long, nine metres wide. There's a goal at each end which goes the full width. So a nine metre wide goal. It's about 90 centimetres high, and you have three people on each side who are all blindfolded. And they're effectively throwing a ball, which is a bit of a cross between a basketball and a medicine ball, at about 80k an hour, and trying to score a goal past those down the other end.
Speaker 4 09:33
I've actually watched it on YouTube or something. It looks very exciting.
Speaker 1 09:38
It is. It's fast paced, it's physical, it's a lot of defending, jumping up, passing the ball, throwing it, a lot of angles, a lot of strategy, and it. Teams effectively got 10 seconds by the time they first touch the ball to get up, work out where they're going to throw it and get it across the court. One of the amazing factors about it is it's so fast, so fast paced and everything happening, and yet the game itself is played in complete silence. So all of the crowd is asked to keep quiet while play is on. Then, effectively, once the whistle blows and a point's been won or the ball goes out of play, the crowd tends to erupt. So it's kind of the reverse of everything else that happens when we watch sport.
Speaker 4 10:16
And is it played a lot in Australia?
Speaker 1 10:18
Yeah, we've got quite a rich history of it here in Australia. So at the moment, all mainland states in Australia have ongoing competition. So at the last Paralympic Games, our women's team, the Aussie Bells, did extremely well. So they made the quarterfinals of the Paralympic Games. They had their best results so far at any games in somewhere like Europe. It's quite huge. They have professional leagues in Europe. We're a sport that always punches above our weight when it comes to how we compete here in Australia. So we're really excited and really hopeful that our men and women can hopefully get a spot for the games next year in Paris.
Speaker 4 10:55
And at these games, do they have medal ceremonies?
Speaker 1 10:58
Yeah, look, we're still waiting to find the details, but certainly in past years there have been gold, silver, bronze awarded for various sports, so we're certainly hoping that'll be the case at these games as well. There are a number of sports which aren't traditional, what they call IBSA games. So international blind Sports Federation have a number of sports which they directly look after. But this time we have cricket and archery and tennis, which aren't IBSA sports. So we're hoping that the concept of medals will extend to those sports as well.
Speaker 4 11:28
And what about sort of like opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies?
Speaker 1 11:31
Yeah, so the opening ceremony will be held at the Birmingham Symphony hall on the 18 August, and then the closing ceremony will be on the 27 August. A little more informal, but that'll actually be held at the University of Birmingham and more a chance for athletes from around the globe to get together and celebrate.
Speaker 4 11:48
Yes. And finally, is there any way that we are able to follow the games and hear results?
Speaker 1 11:55
Absolutely. So many of the events will actually be live streamed back here across the world and back here to Australia. So as soon as we have those sort of details, we'll put them on our website and our social networks, but certainly follow blind Sports Australia through our website or through our various social networks, such as Facebook or Instagram. It's something which I'm getting more to terms with, or LinkedIn will have details about how you can follow that. And our website is blindsportsaustralia.com au. Otherwise the games website itself will have a lot of that detail. And that's just the Ipsagames 2023 Co. UK.
Speaker 4 12:30
That's fantastic. Yeah, because they'll unfortunately be out of a different time zone from us, won't they? Yes, but people will be able to see the results the next day.
Speaker 1 12:39
That's right. And there'll be some sports that will stream in in prime time back here, just by way of where the differentiation goes. So certainly, if there's stuff happening during the day in the UK. We'll be able to watch it at night back here.
Speaker 4 12:53
Fantastic. Matt, thank you so much and have a fabulous trip and best of luck to all our athletes as well.
Speaker 1 13:00
Thanks so much, Marty. Much appreciated.
Speaker 4 13:02
I've just been speaking with Matt Clayton, CEO of Blind Sports Australia and also the chef de mission for the australian team at the 2023 World Blind Games that will be held in Birmingham in midaugust.
Speaker 1 13:19
You.
Speaker 2 13:21
You've just been listening to Ablequest, a programme that looks at developments in assistive technology and initiatives from Marnie Roper and Elaine Jeantek. Thank you for listening and goodbye. Till next programme.
