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Ferocious competition is expected on the court as top-tier wheelchair rugby heads south.
Dunedin team the Otago WheelLanders is looking forward to hosting the New Zealand Wheelchair Rugby Nationals, alongside a disability sports festival, from September 24 to 27.
WheelLanders assistant captain Scott Greaves said the local team was working hard on technical elements before the free public event at the Edgar Centre.
“There are very classy teams coming,” Greaves said.
“Auckland, Canterbury are the top dogs but Bay of Plenty are a threat as well.”
He said the team was happy to have performed well at the Wheelchair Rugby Challenge in Wellington in July, finishing fifth.
“We are definitely building and playing some good stuff.
“Our expectations are a lot higher than they used to be.
“It’s like, we’re going to beat these guys, rather than, hey, let’s be competitive, so we have definitely progressed a lot in the last two years.”
A disability festival will run alongside the national fixtures to give people a chance to try different sports.
“So we’ll be running para ice hockey, we’ve got boccia,” Greaves said.
“I think there is some adaptive volleyball and wheelchair curling as well.”
WheelLanders captain Levi Mihaka will play for the Auckland division one team during the tournament to fill a roster vacancy.
For him, empathy was a key component to working well on the court.
“We are all working hard, right, but your team-mate might be struggling in their particular situation, and it is like do you need to help them or do you need to spread the court,” Mihaka said. “Sometimes the best thing you can do, the default best thing to do is spread the court, get the defence right away from each other, and, you know, that way you’ve got more space to work your magic.”
Mihaka broke his neck in 2018 and joined the sport soon after.
“Basically as soon as I could, as soon as I got means of transport, then I got into it,” he said.
The visibility of the sport was increasing.
“It seems like these days a lot of people are more, like, minded about it.”
Otago WheelLanders player Libby McDonald thanked about 65 people who had already offered to help with the event.
“Which is awesome, really, really cool,” McDonald said.
“If any local businesses also want to get involved or reach out, we’d welcome it.”