Deaf Sports Australia Board and Staff would like to extend their warmest congratulations to the Australian Deaflympic Team for representing Australia at the 2017 Deaflympic Games in Samsun, Turkey.
Despite not coming home with medals, the Australian Deaflympic Team did exceptionally well in their events.
ATHLETICS:
Jamie Howell
Womens 200M (Heat 2) – 6th with a time of 29.59 seconds.
Womens Long Jump (Final) – 9th with a distance of 5.09m
Sekou Kanneh
Sekou unfortunately incurred an injury in Heat 8 of Mens 100M, which saw him disqualified from the race. A heartbreaking start to Sekou’s first Deaflympics campaign. We wish him all the best for a speedy recovery, and we are keen to see him compete at the 2021 Deaflympic Games.
BOWLING:
Judy Buehow and David Hayward competed in their respective tenpin bowling events. They bowled really well, although they did not get the points required for Masters. At 80 years of age, Judy is officially the oldest athlete to have competed at a Deaflympic Games.
BASKETBALL:
The Australian Deaf Goannas began their Deaflympic campaign with their first game against Russia, who proved to be a basketball powerhouse. However, the Goannas showed the world what they were made of, despite losing to Slovenia, Urkaine, and Argentina; and winning against Kenya. Nevertheless, they ended their Deaflympic campaign on good spirits and with a bigger goal of going all the way at the next Deaflympic Games.
AUS 66 – RUS 75
SLO 73 – AUS 54
AUS 87 – KEN 23
URK 52 – AUS 45
AUS 65 – ARG 71
BADMINTON:
Mitchell Davis competed at the Deaflympic Games for the first time ever, and his campaign started off well. In the first round, he lost to Bulgaria. In his second round, he beat Zimbabwe which meant he could move up to the Knockout Stage. Mitchell was unfortunately eliminated from the Knockout Stage after losing to Malaysia.
SWIMMING:
The Australian Deaf Swimming Team saw a number of personal bests broken at the 2017 Deaflympic Games. Alex Kirchner and Monique Beckwith went through to finals in their swimming events.
Henry Hughes
Mens 200M Freestyle: 35th in preliminaries. New PB – 2:20.48 (-7.45 seconds off old PB)
Mens 400M Freestyle: 20th in preliminaries. New PB – 4:54.44 (-5.5 seconds off old PB)
Mens 100M Backstroke: 26th in preliminaries. New PB – 1:18.51 (-1.55 seconds off old PB)
Mens 50M Butterfly: 46th in preliminaries. New PB – 32.47 (-1.31 seconds off old PB)
Alex Kirchner
Mens 200M Freestyle: 13th in preliminaries
Mens 50M Backstroke: 4th in final. New PB – 27.86 (-0.44 seconds off old PB)
Mens 100M Backstroke: 4th in final.
Mens 200M Backstroke: 6th in preliminaries. New PB – 2:12.17 (-0.28 seconds off old PB)
Hannah Britton
Womens 50M Breaststroke: 15th in preliminaries.
Hannah also competed in Womens 100M Breaststroke, unfortunately she was disqualified.
Monique Beckwith
Womens 200M Freestyle: 8th in final.
Womens 100M Freestyle: 19th in preliminaries.
Womens 400M Freestyle: 7th in final.
Womens 800M Freestyle: 11th in preliminaries. New PB – 10:09.68 (-9.74 seconds off old PB).
Womens 100M Backstroke: 11th in preliminaries.
Womens 200M Backstroke: 13th in preliminaries. New PB – 2:35.90 (-1.32 seconds off old PB).
Womens 200M Individual Medley: 17th in preliminaries.