Tiraspol, April, 8. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Previous day at the republican stadium in the capital there was held an unusual in its format amateur tournament in table tennis. 6 mixed teams of 2 people each took part in it, one of whom was a para-athlete. The event planner was the Public Health Alliance organization.
“We came up with the idea of such a tournament long time ago. Health Day has become a good occasion to bring it to life. We have made the tournament more like a social event, but not a sports one,” Zhanna Vilhovaya, Executive Director of Public Health Alliance non-profit organization said.
The tournament organizer notes that typically, para-athletes compete in isolation, because for physical reasons they cannot compete with professionals. There are often the same athletes competing, so they already know each other's abilities. Because of this, interest in the game itself is somewhat lost, and in such conditions it`s hard to improve the technique. Therefore, we decided to organize competitions with mixed teams.
The purpose of this tournament is the socialization of people with disabilities, their integration into society. It is this way of interaction that makes it possible to erase the boundaries between people with different forms of disability and other people.
According to the results of the tournament, the places were distributed as follows: 1st place - Andrei Moor and Valentin Ivanishkin, 2nd place - Vitaly Slipchenko and Valeria Ikim. Konstantin Bereket and Sergey Fedorov took the 3rd place. Winners and prize-winners of the competition received certificates and gifts.
After the competitions, para-athletes held a master class for all who wished to try their hand or take the first steps in table tennis.
