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When the 1400 competitors and officials arrive in Christchurch to take part in the World Games for the Deaf, TVNZ's news programme for the deaf will be ready and waiting. The small staff of the weekly programme "News Review" is being boosted by four journalists to cover the events of the three-week games in January.

Four New Zealand deaf athletes are favoured to win medals in swimming, cycling, and badminton. The 112-strong New Zealand team will compete in 11 of the 12 sports.

At the basketball, also at Cowles Stadium, the New Zealand women beat Australia, 91-65, to notch the host country's first win in the sport. New Zealand led 45-26 at half-time and is now in the running for the bronze medal.

New Zealand's first gold medal was won yesterday by a Fielding cyclist, John Ooteman. Aged 28, Ooteman won the 35km time trial event on the Old West Coast Road ahead of 23 other competitors with a time of 51 min 12.13s.

The 1400 officials and competitors at the World Deaf Games will be well attended by a large group of medical doctors, St John Ambulance officers, physiotherapists, podiatrists and masseurs. Drug and gender tests will also be a part of the workload.

Athletes at the sixteenth World Deaf Games will be randomly tested for drug use. Athletes to be tested would be selected before events by the executive of the Committee of the International Silent Sports (CISS).

The New Zealand team to compete in the World Deaf Games in West Germany later this month is $10,000 short of funds. The 20-strong team is due to buy its air travel tickets and is faced with having to borrow the deficit.

Two Napier indoor basketball players have been selected for the Silent Olympics at Washington D.C. in June 1965. The two deaf players are Mervyn and Ray Foreman. Both brothers, who have played basketball since 1949, have represented Hawkes Bay in inter-provincial play. In 1951, the brothers moved to Auckland, where they played for the Deaf Demons and also represented Auckland. Their selection for the New Zealand team for the Silent Olympics was announced this week.

New Zealand finished the World Games for the deaf in California with a gold in cycling and a gold and silver in badminton – their best result ever.

About 100 interpreters have been trained in Christchurch over the last year. The classes were organised by the 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.

Coventry who will contest the 5000 and 10,000 metres and 15-mile modified marathon races, has perhaps the best chance for a medal in the longest event.

The 1989 "friendly games" are underway. That is the unoffical title given to the Games for the Deaf which the Minister of Health, Mr Caygill, officially opened on Saturday.