The Maties Parasport Club celebrated a decade of excellence with a special function held in Stellenbosch recently.
The guests included several of the club's Paralympic stars and coaches who were honoured for their contribution to the club's success, as well as service providers who assist the athletes as well as the club.
The Maties Parasport Club was established in 2006 and aims to develop and promote sporting codes offered at Paralympic level.
"The Club's vision is to meet the sporting needs of persons with disabilities and to create sporting opportunities for them," says Wentzel Barnard, manager of the Maties Parasport Club.
Sport codes offered by the club are athletics, swimming, goalball, wheelchair rugby, cycling and handcycling. Maties Parasport Club is also one of the sport clubs at Stellenbosch University (SU) that is supported by Maties' High Performance Unit.
"Over the past ten years, the club went from strength to strength and Rio 2016 was a definite highlight. A group of 15 Maties Parasport Club members travelled to the Paralympic Games and they brought home 11 of South Africa's 17 medals," adds Barnard.
Club members include veteran Paralympians such as Ernst van Dyk, Ilse Hayes, Fanie van die Merwe, Arnu Fourie and Zanele Situ.
South Africa's best achievement in Rio was delivered by Charl du Toit, a registered student at SU, who won two gold medals and set a world record in the one event (100m T37) and a Paralympic record in the other event (400m T37). He was also named SU's Parasport Sportsman of the Year recently.
Honorary membership was awarded to Anette Barnard for her involvement in sport for persons with disabilities over many years, as well as to Dr Mike Burns and his wife Karin for their contribution in developing a cycling league for persons with disabilities in the Western Province. Dr Burns is also involved in para-cycling on national level.
Maties' wheelchair rugby players who were included in SA Rugby's high performance group also received recognition. Fizel de Vries was named the most dedicated player while Raven Benny was named the player of the year.
Caption:
Parasport Club members Anika Pretorius, Dyan Buis, Ilse Hayes, Anruné Liebenberg, Roxy Burns, Charl du Toit and Fanie van der Merwe with Kate Allwood. Kate was born deaf and was one of the youngest patients to receive cochlear implants.
Photo credit: Francois Lombard
