Farewell Letter from Dr. Oriol Martinez, who decided not to stand for re-election for the IWAS Executive Board – click here

At the IWAS General Assembly  which was held during the World Games in Stadskannal a few days ago, the current President Paul DePace was re-elected unopposed for a further  four  year term of office.

New Executive board members elected were  Pavel Rozhkov from Russia and Radka Kucirkova from Czech Republic (who had been on the EB previously) and they replaced  Seyed Amir Hosseini, from Iran and Dr Oriol Martinez  (who decided for personal reasons not to put his name forward).

With the IWAS country membership looking healthy, (there are over 60 member nations) new countries that were ‘ratified’ by the General Assembly of Nations during the day were; Estonia NPC and Libya NPC.

The Haitian NPC was also accepted to be members as of 2014.

With Estonian athletes competing at these World Games for the first time Trim Pollisinski from NPC Estonia told me “For us, IWAS Games are important because we get to explore different sports and get new ideas that could be also applied at home, because disabled sport has developed a lot in the recent years. Our team has consisted of eight sportsmen– six swimmers and two athletes  and we have been delighted with our results this week. Most of them are still in school and some are already studying at university. Our young athletes love to compete and this has been a great opportunity for them to put themselves to the test. "

 The ‘Juan Palau Award’ was given to Radoslaw Stanczuk of Poland for showing outstanding sportsmanship during the Wheelchair Fencing tournament at London 2012 Paralympics.

Newly elected Wheelchair Fencing Chairman, Jakub Nowicki accepted the award on his behalf, which was presented by the widow of Juan Palau, Mercedes Soleti.

(Juan Palau was a member of the IWAS Executive Board for several years, but sadly passed away in April 2011).

The Pursuit Trophy was awarded to Maura Strange who is a Member of the Paralympic Order for her lifetime work and dedication to IWAS and the Paralympic Movement. IWAS Honorary Treasurer and long-time friend, Bob Paterson awarded her the Trophy. Maura was the Executive Director and Secretary General of IWAS until her retirement in September 2012.

Following her acceptance of the Pursuit Trophy, Maura Strange said

"I am so proud to be a recipient of this honour. The wording on the Trophy is extremely significant and confirms the historic relevance of the Paralympic movement.  I trust very much that I have been true to the original principles and concept of this great movement, and as a member of the Paralympic Order, that my contributions over 30 years match the ideals and goals that are our common and true objectives."

Tony Garrett  IWAS Reporter