8th Asean Para Games and Carnival

Last sunday, we made a last minute call to drop by Singapore Sports hub to watch some matches of the Para Games. By the time we reached there, it was near 5pm and the Track and Field segment was nearing its end. Hence, we hopped over to the OCBC Aquatic Centre to catch the table tennis matches first, thereafter the Badminton matches:

The turnout was not as high as what we have seen during the SEA games in June, but good enough to cheer the athletes on. These players demonstrated sheer determination to put up a good fight with each other and their sports spirit was indeed commendable.

The 8th Asean Para Games organiser has also put up some booths in their Carnival and the boys wanted to try out a few stations to have a feel of how it is like to play sports in the shoes of the disabled athletes:

Caden found it very strenuous to pull himself up the slope with the wheelchair

They said straight paths are much easier:

They had to wear a blindfold to kick the ball into the target (mission impossible since they don't even know where is the target)

We had to wait 1 hour for this segment! This is a simulation of how the blind people carry out their day-to-day activities with the help of a walking stick and surrounding sounds:

 

 

They were asked to feel the objects in these boxes and identify what they were

Then they had to arrange the cutlery into the correct positions and also pour out a cup of water from the flask

Lastly, they had to roll the bowling ball to hit the pins (another mission impossible task!)

Both of them enjoyed the experience they had in this last station and realised that it's really not easy to be doing stuff without sight. I hope this experience helps them to be more compassionate towards the unfortunate ones and also be appreciative with what they have in life.