Wheelchair Warriors: Triumph At Boccia Championship

Tell My Story

A team of differently abled wheel chair users from Tamil Nadu have scaled new heights winning gold in Boccia national games, an exclusive sporting championship for wheelchair users, held in Gwalior in February.

Lakshmi Prabha a wheelchair user in Chennai is excited. The 39 year old who runs an inclusive playschool won a gold in an individual Boccia game. “I love Boccia. I attend my weekend trainings without fail. I also make new friends” she added.

23 year old from Sabana Parveen from Trichy district is happy. She lifted a gold in a team event and won a bronze in an individual event. Using a wheelchair since childhood, She told tellmystory.in “I am happy about this victory after five years of training”. On her future ambitions she said “I want to crack Group 4 exams and get a government job”.

A total of eight members from Tamil Nadu took part in these games. It took years of encouragement and training to achieve this as there was little awareness about this Paralympic event exclusively for those with high restriction in mobility and no power in their hands.

The game uses thirteen balls – six red, six blue and one white target ball. Balls are thrown at the white ball and points scored on the basis of how close they are to the white ball. There are various categories based on their mobility . Those who can’t use their hands to throw the ball can roll the ball on a ramp like device. There is also a category for polio and spinal chord injured individuals. Some categories allow players to have an assistant as well.

Ektha, non profit organisation that works for the upliftment of the community since 2008 has been training them over the last eight years by holding training camps in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry hoping to send more players to national and international games. In Chennai they hold weekend trainings at Vidya Sagar an NGO that empowers the differently abled. “Our long term aim is to train more such individuals for national and international games and get them more recognition. We also hope this could be truly professional, helping them to earn as well”, said Sathish Kumar, Boccia Program Developer.

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