Eleven players have been selected to represent Australia at Virtus Global Games 2023 in France next month.
Brisbane, Australia, May 25, 2023 | tennis.com.au
Australia’s top PWII players will compete at the Virtus Global Games in France next month.
Virtus Global Games is the world’s largest elite sports event for athletes with intellectual disabilities, held every four years. Australia won the last tournament held in Brisbane in 2019.
The French city of Vichy will host the 2023 event from June 4-10.
Queensland’s Archie Graham and New South Wales’s Kelly Wren, the country’s top II-1 singles players, headline the 11-man Australian squad.
Virtus 2023 Global Games Australian team |
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MEN | Classification | WOMEN | Classification |
Archie Graham (Qld) | II-1 | Kelly Wren (NSW) | II-1 |
Mitchell James (Qld) | II-1 | Carla Lenarduzzi (Vic) | II-1 |
Luke Barker (Qld) | II-1 | Breanna Tunny (Qld) | II-1 |
Damian Phillips (NSW) | II-1 | Andriana Petrakis (SA) | II-1 |
Timothy Gould (Qld) | II-2 | ||
Hunter Thompson (Qld) | II-3 | ||
Simon Ma (NSW) | II-3 |
Classifications in the PWII path: II-1 (intellectual disability), II-2 (Down syndrome), II-3 (autism).
“This year’s team is a big team and we’re really proud of that,” head coach Alison Scott said.
“We’ve been world champions since 2015, so we’re very confident about going abroad. The team is very well prepared and well trained which is brilliant.
“This is the first year that Category II-3 players, i.e. players on the autism spectrum, can compete in games and we are excited to take two players in this category overseas to compete.
“We were really looking forward to this moment as we believe Australia is ahead of the II-3 game. We’ve really supported players on the autism spectrum in Australia, so we’re very excited to have this opportunity and hope we can take advantage of that and increase the competition from here.”
> SEE: Australian PWII Rankings
Teams from over 50 countries will compete in a variety of sports, including Virtus 2023 Global Games.
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