WBFI to host National Selection Camp for AOZ Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics in Chennai

Chennai, 23 August 2019: The Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India, in partnership with RR Donnelley, is conducting the National Selection Camp for the Indian Men’s and Women’s teams to participate at the AOZ Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Qualifying from 24 August 2019 to 31 August 2019 at the ICF Indoor Stadium, Chennai.

The eight-day selection camp will be attended by the top performers at the 6^th National Wheelchair Basketball Championship, which was held in June 2019 in Mohali, Punjab. Based on their performance at this camp, the top 12 players from the men’s and women’s participants will be selected to represent India in Thailand in November 2019.

The camp will be overseen by Jaspal Dhani, Coach, Co-Founder and Chairman of the largest wheelchair basketball club in the UK, the London Titans. Having been associated with the sport for over 30 years, Mr. Dhani was instrumental in bringing wheelchair basketball to India and actively conducts training camps and coaching clinics across the UK and India.

He will be assisted at the men’s camp by the head coach, Mr. Sharad Nagana, alongside Mr. Thayumana Subramaniam as the assistant coach. The women’s camp will be coached by Capt. Louis George Meprath and Mr. Lee Roy Simon.

“We are so happy to have Jaspal back here in India to train our country’s best players. We have been working hard in our preparations to support the Indian Men's and Women's Teams at the AOZ Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Qualifiers in Thailand in November. At this selection camp, with the support of our coaches, we will select 12 players under each gender category, based on their performance. We sincerely hope to get the required support for our teams' participation in these tournaments!” says Madhavi Latha, President, WBFI and a National Paralympic Swimming Champion.

“At this important stage, the support from our coaches and our sponsors including RR Donnelley, Cognizant and Barclays, keeps us going strong! We've been able to achieve so many milestones because of our partners and well-wishers, and we hope to continue this momentum by having a great showing at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Qualifiers in Thailand,” added Kalyani Rajaraman, Secretary-General, WBFI

About the Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India

Affiliated with International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India (WBFI) works on nurturing strong state and national teams for Wheelchair Basketball in India. WBFI has an outreach to 500+ players across 19 states and has organized training camps and five national championships. WBFI was instrumental in India’s participation in international tournaments like U23 Men's World Championship Qualifiers and 4th Bali Cup. WBFI is glad to count the Sports Authority of India, various State Governments, ICRC, RR Donnelly, Cognizant and Hannon Automotive Systems as its partners.

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