Seven Aussies declare gold at IBTA Tennis World Championships | 9 October, 2024 | All Information | Information and Options | Information and Occasions

Australia has scooped 14 medals, together with seven gold, on the IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Italy in a contest that drew athletes from 25 nations.

Melbourne, 9 October 2024 | Sarah Dyce

Australia has delivered a dominant efficiency on the 2024 IBTA Blind and Low Imaginative and prescient Tennis World Championships in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy, securing a powerful haul of seven gold, six silver and one bronze medal.

The 2024 IBTA World Championships have been held throughout two venues in Italy, drawing athletes from all over the world to compete.

A premier occasion within the blind tennis calendar, it continued to advertise inclusivity in sport, providing alternatives for athletes with various levels of imaginative and prescient impairment to compete on the highest stage.

The week-long occasion, held from 23-29 September, introduced collectively greater than 150 athletes from 25 international locations, and the Australian contingent showcased their energy and depth throughout varied classes.

Among the many standout performers was Grace Hobbs, who took dwelling gold within the B4 ladies’s singles. Representing New South Wales, Hobbs additionally teamed with fellow New South Wales competitor Courtney Webeck to say one other gold medal within the ladies’s open doubles. Webeck, competing within the B2 ladies’s singles, added to her haul with a silver medal.

Within the males’s occasions, Ross Patterson (TAS) and Michael Leigh (SA) proved to be an unstoppable duo, clinching the lads’s open doubles gold medal. Each athletes additionally excelled in singles, with Patterson successful the B4 males’s singles and Leigh taking the B3 males’s singles gold.

South Australia’s Ethan Prepare dinner continued his robust run in worldwide competitors, successful gold within the B2 males’s singles. Prepare dinner additionally partnered with Oliver Fanshawe (QLD) to earn silver within the males’s open doubles, rounding off an unimaginable event for the pair.

Victoria’s Caroline Lane added to the medal depend with a silver within the B3 ladies’s singles, whereas additionally partnering Germany’s Charlotte Schwagmeier to take silver within the ladies’s open doubles.

The format of visually impaired tennis varies primarily based on the set sight classes that the gamers compete in. Relying on a participant’s class they might have as much as three bounces of the ball earlier than they return it to their opponent.

Within the B1 class, for these having the best diploma of sight loss or no sight, three bounces of the ball are allowed, and gamers sometimes put on eye masks. B2, B3, B4 and B5 classes are contested by gamers with completely different levels of partial sight, with B2 gamers allowed three bounces, B3 gamers allowed two bounces and B4 and B5 gamers allowed one bounce of the ball.

Australian Medal Tally

• Grace Hobbs (NSW) – Gold, B4 ladies’s singles
• Ross Patterson (TAS) – Gold, B4 males’s singles
• Michael Leigh (SA) – Gold, B3 males’s singles
• Courtney Webeck (NSW) – Silver, B2 ladies’s singles
• Ethan Prepare dinner (SA) – Gold, B2 males’s singles
• Oliver Fanshawe (QLD) – Silver, B2 males’s singles
• Ross Patterson & Michael Leigh – Gold, males’s open doubles
• Ethan Prepare dinner & Oliver Fanshawe – Silver, males’s open doubles
• Grace Hobbs & Courtney Webeck – Gold, ladies’s open doubles
• Caroline Lane & Charlotte Schwagmeier (GER) – Silver, ladies’s open doubles

Australia’s success on the 2024 World Championships demonstrates the nation’s rising presence in blind and low-vision tennis, with athletes attaining podium finishes throughout a number of divisions.

This efficiency not solely highlights the ability and dedication of the gamers but in addition marks a big milestone within the improvement of the game in Australia.

For extra info on blind and low-vision tennis in Australia, go to play.tennis.com.au.