National selection camp for wheelchair basketball underway in Chennai

Top wheelchair basketball performers from across India are in Chennai for the national selection camp for the men’s and women’s team for the AOZ Championships and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Qualifiers.

The Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India along with RR Donnelley is conducting a national selection camp to put together the men’s and women’s teams to participate at the AOZ Championships and Tokyo 2020 Paralympics qualifying. The camp is being held at the ICF Indoor Stadium in Chennai and ends on 31 August.

The eight-day selection camp is being attended by the top players at 6th National Wheelchair Basketball Championship held in June this year at Mohali, Punjab. Based on their performance at the Chennai camp, the top 12 male and female players will be selected to represent India in Thailand in November 2019.

Overseeing the camp is Jaspal Dhani, the well-known coach and Co-Founder/Chairman of the London Titans, the largest wheelchair basketball club in the United Kingdom. Jaspal has been associated with wheelchair basketball for years and conducts training camps and coaching clinics across the United Kingdom and India.

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. –Madhavi Latha, President, Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India

Assisting Jaspal in the men’s camp is head coach Sharad Nagana, while the women’s camp will be coached by Captain Louis George Meprath.

“At this important stage, the support from our coaches and our sponsors including RR Donnelley, Cognizant and Barclays, keeps us going strong”, said Kalyani Rajaraman, Secretary-General, WBFI. “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,”.

The WBFI is affiliated with the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and Paralympic Committee of India (PCI). It aims to build state and national teams for the game and reaches out to over 500 players across 19 states.

Watch in Sign Language