World Wheelchair Rugby (WWR) is pleased to announce the host for the 2024 WWR Paralympic Qualification Tournament . The successful host city is Wellington, New Zealand.
The tournament will be held from the 20th to the 24th March 2024, with training and classification from the 18th to the 19th March 2024.The venue will be at the new home of Wellington rugby, the New Zealand Campus of Innovation and Sport, Trentham, Wellington. Located on the former site of the Central Institute of Technology in Trentham, the campus is the brainchild of developers Kevin Melville and Malcolm Gillies who purchased the site in 2016.
The 17-hectare sports hub features a 1000m² gym, an altitude and climate-controlled bike studio, cryotherapy facilities, indoor pools, a sports medicine laboratory, four outdoor fields, a huge indoor field and onsite accommodation for 360.
Kathy Newman, WWR Director of Competitions & Development said “WWR received two extremely strong bids to host the 2024 WWR Paralympic Qualification Tournament and we are pleased to award the bid to New Zealand. The New Zealand bid was very athlete centred and will allow the athletes to focus on the task at hand which is to qualify for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. This is the first time a final WWR qualification event will be held in the Asia Oceania Zone since we introduced the Last Chance Qualifier system. WWR looks forward to working with the Local Organizing Committee to ensure the best possible event is delivered.”
Richard Allcroft, President of WWR commented “Confirming the event early is important to those teams attending so they can prepare as much as possible in advance. Congratulations to New Zealand on their successful application to host and I was pleased to see that there was a competitive bid process. Good luck to those teams who will be attending in March next year.”
Dr Cherie Harris, (New Zealand Wheelchair Rugby President) writes: “Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa (Let us keep close together not wide apart).
To showcase the thrills and spills of international wheelchair rugby in Wellington, NZ is both a delight and an opportunity not to be missed. We cannot wait to welcome eight teams to battle it out for Paralympic Qualification in an innovative venue ‘Down Under’.
Werohia nga tumanako me te eke ki nga whetu (Defy expectations and reach for the stars).”
Paralympian and Wheel Black Cameron Leslie said: “Us hosting this tournament is huge. We always travel to Europe to compete which is challenging on many fronts so the Wheel Blacks will be proud to represent New Zealand with home-court advantage.“
“Something else the team will be proud of is being able to compete for our country in front of our whanau. Whanau is huge for our team and the ability to do what we do with their support courtside will be something special we will cherish. I’m excited that everyday Kiwis will be able to see the international version of the sport too.“
“We are targeting this tournament as part of our story as a team and to show how epic our sport of wheelchair rugby is and how amazing the players in the New Zealand team are.”
If you have any questions regarding the event these can be directed to Catriona McBean, Event Director via catriona@dsport.nz, or Kathy Newman, Director of Competitions & Development, via kathy.newman@worldwheelchair.rugby.