The first ever Australian Paralympic Youth Games were held in Melbourne from 5-10 October, 2009. The games were open to both Australian and International athletes under the age of 20, and included seven Paralympic sports including athletics, handcycling, swimming, table tennis, wheelchair tennis, 7-a-side football and wheelchair basketball.
Reagan Wickens with his medals from the 2009 APYG
The SSPA was represented by swimmers from NSW and Victoria.
From NSW was Reagan Wickens, 14, who recently won a gold and three bronze medals at the NSW Combined Catholic College’s meet. At the NSW Disability Sports he set a new Australian open record for the 100 metre breaststroke short course for his classification and set new records in the 14 years 50m and 100m breaststroke. He then won silver in the 4x50m freestyle relay at the NSW All Schools Swimming Championships.
At these, the 2009 Australian Paralympic Youth Games, his results were:
100m Freestyle – Silver
100m Backstroke – Silver
100m Breaststroke – Silver
50m Freestyle – Bronze
50m Breast – Bronze
50m Backstroke – 4th
From Victoria, Samantha Lilly, 20, recently won five gold and one silver medal in swimming at the World Dwarf Games in Belfast. At these games her results were:
Open Mixed 50m Butterfly – Silver
Open Women’s 100m Freestyle – 5th
Open Women’s 50m Backstroke – 4th
Open Women’s 50m freestyle – 5th
Both athletes gave wonderful performances and achieved great results. More information about the Games is available on the Wheelchair Sports Victoria website.