PEOPLE in Bathurst and the surrounding areas will be given a great opportunity to learn more about wheelchair sports when a wheelchair rugby gala day is held here in September.
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The Bathurst Indoor Stadium will play host to a round of the Sydney Slam series on September 18.
Beforehand, the public will be invited to a wheelchair skills and coaching clinic run by Wheelchair Sports NSW in the morning.
Because of the nature of the sport, the story of virtually every participant in wheelchair rugby is inspiring. But the story of Bathurst youngster Harry Clist, who will also be involved at the event, is particularly amazing.
He has been chosen as part of the NSW Gladiators training squad on top of his regular participation in other rounds of the Sydney Slam.
Now 10 years old and understood to be the youngest “murderball” player on the planet, Harry was born with birth defects that have kept him mostly confined to a wheelchair and have led to numerous operations.
At a “come and try” sports expo in Sydney, he decided that wheelchair rugby was the game for him, and has been up to his ears in it ever since.
“He loves it,” Harry’s dad Dave Clist said.
“He doesn’t have any trouble getting stuck right into it. A few weeks ago there he was playing against Curtis Palmer, who is in the Australian team and captains NSW.
“Curtis smashed him and drove him back about two metres. Harry just looked up and got straight back into it and went again.
“At the moment he’s going down to Sydney three weeks out of the month – twice to train and once for a round of the Slam.”
A sport so renowned for its brutality might seem like a strange place for a young boy to channel his competitive urges, but Dave Clist hasn’t had much cause for concern throughout Harry’s time training and playing.
“We just thought when it started that basically we can let him go, he’ll figure out pretty quickly whether he’s good enough or enjoys it enough to keep going,” he explained.
Come September, he is hoping that plenty of people from right across the region get behind both the Sydney Slam and the skills and coaching clinic.
“All the guys that are coming up here are part of the NSW team and the level of skill is right up there with any team in the world,” he said.
“It is leading up to an international tournament in Russia, so it will be a big part of the preparation for the guys like Curtis who are in the Aussie team.
“The clinic is being held in conjunction with the Department of Sport and Recreation and it would be fantastic to see as many people there as possible just to have a look and see if they’d like to give some wheelchair sports a try.”
