Australia has scooped 14 medals, together with seven gold, on the IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Italy in a contest that drew athletes from 25 nations.
Melbourne, 9 October 2024 | Sarah Dyce
Australia has delivered a dominant efficiency on the 2024 IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, securing a formidable haul of seven gold, six silver and one bronze medal.
The 2024 IBTA World Championships have been held throughout two venues in Italy, drawing athletes from around the globe to compete.
A premier occasion within the blind tennis calendar, it continued to advertise inclusivity in sport, providing alternatives for athletes with various levels of imaginative and prescient impairment to compete on the highest degree.
The week-long occasion, held from 23-29 September, introduced collectively greater than 150 athletes from 25 international locations, and the Australian contingent showcased their power and depth throughout varied classes.
Among the many standout performers was Grace Hobbs, who took house gold within the B4 girls’s singles. Representing New South Wales, Hobbs additionally teamed with fellow New South Wales competitor Courtney Webeck to say one other gold medal within the girls’s open doubles. Webeck, competing within the B2 girls’s singles, added to her haul with a silver medal.
Australia’s girls rivals take the courtroom on the 2024 IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.
Within the males’s occasions, Ross Patterson (VIC) and Michael Leigh (SA) proved to be an unstoppable duo, clinching the lads’s open doubles gold medal. Each athletes additionally excelled in singles, with Patterson profitable the B4 males’s singles and Leigh taking the B3 males’s singles gold.
South Australia’s Ethan Cook dinner continued his robust run in worldwide competitors, profitable gold within the B2 males’s singles. Cook dinner additionally partnered with Oliver Fanshawe (QLD) to earn silver within the males’s open doubles, rounding off an unbelievable event for the pair.
Victoria’s Caroline Lane added to the medal rely with a silver within the B3 girls’s singles, whereas additionally partnering Germany’s Charlotte Schwagmeier to take silver within the girls’s open doubles.
The format of visually impaired tennis varies based mostly on the set sight classes that the gamers compete in. Relying on a participant’s class they could have as much as three bounces of the ball earlier than they return it to their opponent.
Within the B1 class, for these having the best diploma of sight loss or no sight, three bounces of the ball are allowed, and gamers usually put on eye masks. B2, B3, B4 and B5 classes are contested by gamers with totally different levels of partial sight, with B2 gamers allowed three bounces, B3 gamers allowed two bounces and B4 and B5 gamers allowed one bounce of the ball.
Australian Medal Tally
- Grace Hobbs (NSW) – Gold, B4 girls’s singles
- Ross Patterson (VIC) – Gold, B4 males’s singles
- Michael Leigh (SA) – Gold, B3 males’s singles
- Courtney Webeck (NSW) – Silver, B2 girls’s singles
- Ethan Cook dinner (SA) – Gold, B2 males’s singles
- Oliver Fanshawe (QLD) – Silver, B2 males’s singles
- Ross Patterson & Michael Leigh – Gold, males’s open doubles
- Ethan Cook dinner & Oliver Fanshawe – Silver, males’s open doubles
- Grace Hobbs & Courtney Webeck – Gold, girls’s open doubles
- Caroline Lane & Charlotte Schwagmeier (GER) – Silver, girls’s open doubles
Australia’s success on the 2024 World Championships demonstrates the nation’s rising presence in blind and low-vision tennis, with athletes reaching podium finishes throughout a number of divisions.
This efficiency not solely highlights the talent and dedication of the gamers but in addition marks a big milestone within the growth of the game in Australia.
For extra data on blind and low-vision tennis in Australia, go to play.tennis.com.au.
The Australian staff forward of the opening ceremony for the 2024 IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.
