Top women’s sitting volleyball athletes from around the world are competing in Halifax to win gold.
The tournament, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Sitting Volleyball Qualifier, will result in the gold-medalist team travelling to Japan this summer to compete in the Paralympic Games.
The tournament will be held from Feb. 26 to Feb. 29.
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According to Volleyball Nova Scotia, sitting volleyball is a discipline of disabled volleyball that is played while sitting on the floor.
The sport is governed by the same set of rules as the able-bodied game, with a few minor rule modifications which include the net height.
“It’s so exciting to bring our sport home to us. Sitting volleyball is still such a small sport in Canada, so just being able to show our fellow Canadians what we can do and how proud we are to wear the maple leaf, so we want that gold for them,” said captain Danielle Ellis.
The first game of the qualifier is taking place on Wednesday at the Canada Games Centre between Canada and Slovenia.
“Bringing this important qualifier to Nova Scotia will provide a lot of exposure for this growing sport, while giving Canada’s women’s sitting volleyball team a home-court advantage as they look to qualify for Tokyo 2020,” said Jason Trepanier, executive director at Volleyball Nova Scotia.
According to Volleyball Canada, the teams participating in this year’s Paralympic Qualifier are Canada, Ukraine, Slovenia, Finland and Germany.
Ukraine is the highest-rank team, while Canada sits right behind them.
The semi-finals and finals will be taking place on Friday and Saturday and everyone is welcome to attend the tournament at no cost.