"Gooi mielies!" 

That is the message on the beads presented to members of the Maties Parasport Club taking part in the Paralympic Games by Sean Surmon, head of the High Performance Unit at Maties Sport.

A number of the athletes attended the farewell function hosted by Maties Sport on Saturday. Matsobane Jerry Laka, Deputy Director: Support Services at Maties Sport, took the opportunity to wish them well.

A total of 15 members from the Maties Parasport Club are part of the South African Paralympic team. They are Anruné Liebenberg, Charl du Toit, Dyan Buis, Ilse Hayes, Arnu Fourie, Fanie van der Merwe, Zanele Situ, Reinhardt Hamman, Roxy Burns, Hendri Herbst, Achmat Hassiem, Ernst van Dyk, Craig Ridgard, Justine Asher and Goldy Fuchs. The SA team consists of 44 members. Three local coaches, Dr Suzanne Ferreira, Dr Karin Hugo and Karin le Roux, will accompany the participants. Read more about the team members here.

The local athletes departed from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Tuesday where they will join the rest of the team.

Friends, family members and supporters gathered at the airport to take photos, get autographs and bid the Paralympic participants farewell.

One of the people at the airport was Brandon Beack, a talented wheelchair athlete. Brandon, who only got involved in sport for people with disabilities 18 months ago, was recently included in the Mail & Guardian's list of 200 Young South Africans for 2016. He said he hopes to be part of the Paralympic team to leave for Tokyo, Japan, in four years' time.

"True strength doesn't come from your physical abilities, it comes from within. And this #saparalympicteam consists on the strongest individuals I have ever known. I aspire to be like you guys," he wrote on his Facebook page afterwards.

Corné Rossouw, formerly of the Department of Sport Science at Stellenbosch University (SU), was also there to support the athletes. She was the team manager of the Paralympic team that travelled to Barcelona in 1992 and had also accompanied the team to Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000). Rossouw was closely involved with the establishment of structures for sport for people with disabilities at SU.

Photo:

Members of the Maties Parasport Club on their way to Rio: In front are Ernst van Dyk, Ilse Hayes, Zanele Situ, Wentzel Barnard (Manager: Maties Parasport) and Anruné Liebenberg. At the back are Arnu Fourie, Dr Karin Hugo (coach), Roxy Burns, Karin le Roux (coach), Hendri Herbst, Reinhardt Hamman and Fanie van der Merwe.