A two-day event celebrating young people with disabilities took place in Invercargill at the weekend.
Hosted by Inclusive Activity Murihiku (iAm), the inaugural iAm Games saw close to 60 youngsters living with disabilities compete in sports and play games at venues throughout the city over two days.
Active Southland disability and inclusion adviser Chris Knight said the event was a localised version of the Halberg Games that are held each year in Auckland.
"We thought how cool would it be to have an event locally that Otago and Southland athletes or people with disabilities could be involved in, where it eliminates a lot of the costs involved."
"To have the whole spectrum of disabilities catered for in one event is actually pretty huge for the sector."
The first day of the event was spread out at various sporting venues throughout Invercargill, to which participants were transported by bus, and the second day took place entirely at ILT Stadium Southland.
Some of the sports included hockey, archery, cricket, rugby, croquet, athletics, water polo at Splash Palace and climbing at the stadium’s Clip ’n Climb facility.
"The feedback’s been extremely positive. People are just rapt there’s actually been an event that caters for them. Parents are loving it. They’re getting more involved. They have smiles on their faces - it’s just a really cool vibe."
The event would almost definitely be back next year - though there were still a few other events in the pipeline first, Mr Knight said.
"We can’t just do one and leave it at that."
Athlete Elloise Shefford (15) said the event had been a lot of fun.
"It’s pretty good to let people with disabilities have a go instead of leaving them out on the sidelines."
