Border athletes have made an impression as the Australian Deaf Games celebrate elite performances alongside the goals of participation and social inclusion.
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Declan Campion broke the under-18 and under-20 games record for high jump at the athletics, which was postponed a day owing to the weekend heat.
In the pool, swimmer Brooke King set three records on her way to winning five gold medals and one silver in the under-13 section and a silver medal in the open category.
We will be selecting different athletes to continue that pathway to train them and get them ready for the next games
- Alex Jones
King was also named the under-13 girl swimmer of the games and the female swimmer of the games.
Overall, the swimming program saw 12 games records broken, which games organising committee chairman Alex Jones said had not happened for some time.
NSW won the women’s netball final against Victoria 31-24, its first victory in that sport since 2003.
“Victoria has been winning for many years, and Queensland, this was an emotional moment for NSW,” Mr Jones said.
Beach volleyball and touch football also reached their final stages on Wednesday.
Mr Jones said the standard of competition had been quite high throughout the games, which were being staged only two years after the previous event in Adelaide.
This allowed the Australian Deaf Games to synchronise better with the selection timetables for national teams. The timing of earlier games had made this more difficult.
“The pathways were not aligned, so we wanted to go back to the four-year cycle to align with the current schedule for the Asia Pacific Deaf Games and Deaflympics,” the chairman said.
After the shorter two-year gap, a challenge for organisers, the next games will be held in 2022.
The national competition links in with Deaf Sports Australia’s high performance program.
“We will be selecting different athletes to continue that pathway to train them and get them ready for the next games, which is the Asia Pacific Deaf Games,” Mr Jones said.
“For them to train and get ready for Deaflympics to represent the Australian team.
“We’re really keen to promote that approach for our high performance program, that’s why we’re doing it.”
Competition continues on Thursday in darts, futsal, lawn bowls, netball, table tennis and tenpin bowling, along with social beach volleyball and barefoot lawn bowls.