IBSA World Games Start This Friday

The fourth International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Championships and Games will get underway this Friday with Antalya, Turkey hosting around 1,200 athletes from over 70 countries.

Hosted by the Turkish Blind Sports Federation, the event, which takes places between 1 and 10 April, will be the biggest ever and will see visually impaired athletes compete in eight sports – Athletics, Chess, Futsal (football) B1, Futsal (football) B2/B3, Goalball, Judo, Powerlifting, Swimming,

The IBSA World Championships and Games provide blind and partially sighted sportsmen and sportswomen from around the globe the opportunity to perform in an elite competition.

For many of the athletes taking part it will be their last major event before the London 2012 Paralympic Games which get underway in just over 500 days time. It is also a chance for those competing in athletics, goalball, judo and swimming to meet the qualifying standards for London.

The fourth IBSA World Championships and Games Antalya 2011 follow on from previous successful events that were held in Madrid, Spain (1998), Quebec, Canada (2003) and Sao Paulo, Brazil (2007).