Wheel Blacks road to Beijing mapped out

New Zealand’s Wheelchair rugby team, the Wheel Blacks, have taken a major step towards the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing with the naming of three squads. Coach Grant Sharman and his team of selectors have put forward a Beijing squad, a development squad and a talent ID squad.

The Beijing Squad consists of athletes that would be taken to Beijing if the Paralympics were ‘today’. It includes six players: Dan Buckingham (Canterbury), Geremy Tinker (Canterbury), Tim Johnson (Auckland), Jai Waite (Auckland), Sholto Taylor (Hawkes Bay) and Dave Klinkhamer (Waikato).

The development squad is formed from athletes that could well go to Beijing, but due to either form or injury, they wouldn’t go to the event if it was ‘today’. There are three players in the development squad: Stephen Hannen (Canterbury), Riki Foulsham (Canterbury) and Curtis Palmer (Auckland).

The talent identification squad identifies players that have potential for the future, and will benefit from attending training camps and receiving conditioning services. Steve Smith (Auckland), Cameron Leslie (Auckland), Adam Wakefield (Auckland) and Jason Solomon (Manawatu) make up the talent identification squad.

As well as the three squads, Coach Sharman named his team for the test series to be played against Australia in Invercargill later this year. It consists of all the players from the Beijing and the development squad that are free from injury.
There will be a progression from there for Beijing: After the Australian series the selectors will name a team for the Oceania games in November, after which the Beijing team will be selected.