More than 1300 people from about 30 countries are taking part in the World Games for the Deaf which kick off in Christchurch on Saturday.
The games are the result of months of preparation and are being run to a tight budget.
Twelve sports will be contested at various venues around the city — athletics, swimming, volleyball, handball, basketball, soccer, tennis, table tennis, cycling, wrestling, badminton and shooting.
The opening and closing ceremonies are being held at Queen Elizabeth II Park.
The competitors began arriving in the city a week ago and many will be staying on after the Games to do some sight-seeing around the country.
Two games villages have been set up, where most of the competitors will be staying for the 10 days. They are at Canterbury University and at Lincoln College.
Among the teams are countries such as Russia, which boycotted the last games in Los Angeles, Iraq, Kuwait and Bangladesh.
Honour“It is a great honour for Christchurch to be awarded these games. It is the first time they have been held in the Southern Hemisphere,” the executive officer for the organising committee, Mr Norman McPherson said.
The games will centre around the track and pool at Queen Elizabeth II Park and Cowles Stadium.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Caygill will open on Saturday.
Entry to the opening ceremony costs $8. An entry ticket to a venue is $3 while a ticket to any venue on one day is $6. A ten-trip ticket is also on sale. The closing ceremony will cost $5 to attend.
Members of the New Zealand team have had to pay between $800 and $900 each to attend. National Provident sponsored the team to the tune of $25,000.
The games as a whole have been run on a tight budget — about $700,000. That was approximately a third of the cost of the opening ceremony planned for the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, Mr McPherson said.
The original budget was $1m but this had to be trimmed when funding proved difficult after the share market crash.
The Government and the City Council have underwritten a shortfall in the budget.
The games have Olympic standing — they are the only non-Olympic event permitted to fly the Olympic flag.
The International Olympic Committee gave its blessing to the games earlier this year in the form of funding and patronage.
A representative of the committee’s executive will be present at the games.
The New Zealand team consists of 97 athletes and 19 officials.
Our greatest medal hopes lie in John Ooteman of Feilding, who has twice won gold in cycling, Penny Went of Auckland in badminton, Canterbury schoolboy Frank Watson in athletics, and Kevin Lawrence, of Taranaki in the marathon.
There are 26 team members from Canterbury.
Hundreds of volunteers from around the city will be helping during the games. One of the most important groups of hearing people will be the interpreters.
Communication is a big problem for the deaf because it is not as simple as picking up a telephone to let somebody something.
About 100 interpreters have been trained in Christchurch over the last year. The classes were organised by hearing people but the deaf were the teachers.
It is only the second time that New Zealand sign language has been taught in this country. Children at schools for the deaf are taught Australian sign language.
As well as learning New Zealand signs, the interpreters have also been taught one-handed American spelling. It is easier for deaf people to communicate with different sign languages than it is for hearing to communicate with different languages.
New Zealand only has three trained interpreters working for the New Zealand Association for the Deaf.
Another first has been notched up for New Zealand because of the games. Handball is a sport which is popular in Europe but is virtually unknown here.
Handball will be played at the games. Handball has been played as demonstration game in Timaru and Christchurch.
It is a seven-a-side game and very fast. Players can run with the ball but must either bounce or pass it after taking three steps or holding it for three seconds.
A player can strike the ball with his head or shoulder but must not kick it. A court is being drawn up at Pioneer Stadium for the games.
Caption: Venue manager at Pioneer Stadium, Peter Tyerman sets up a handball goal for the deaf games.
